My wife and I had a cellar professionally built last year, and the construction spanned from July through September. We have a 447 cubic foot cellar with a capacity of somewhere around 900 bottles, currently storing somewhere around 450 bottles, and it is actively chilled with a Wine Guardian TTW 018.
The installation utilized pretty standard insulation techniques. The contractor I used only does wine cellars, and they have done everything from small private cellars like mine, all the way up through large restaurant cellars and even our local Binny’s.
Initially, I noticed in the first few weeks (so basically last October in Chicago when it was 60 degrees out) that when I set the chiller to 55, it took almost 48 hours to get there, and once at 55 the chiller was switching off and on every 5 minutes or so for maintenance. After days of obsessive temperature measurements in dozens of locations throughout the cellar (with engineer-quality spreadsheets and statistical analysis), I noticed that by setting the chiller to 57, the chiller would stay off for about 20-30 minutes and switch back on for 5-7 minutes. I could live with that. I set up several permanent thermometers, including a wireless digital air thermometer in the front (near the door), in the back (far away from the door) and a liquid thermometer in a sealed bottle of water in the back of the cellar. I monitored pretty closely for weeks. When the chiller showed a temp of 57, the front air thermometer would should around 58, the back one would show 56, and the bottle thermometer would show 56 as well. All was well.
But now here we are in the heat of summer. It is 90-92 out every day. My chiller is now basically running 24/7, because though it is set to 57 it never shows a temp below 60. The front air thermometer shows 62, the back one shows 59, and the liquid bottle thermometer shows 60-61. And the chiller is on. All. The. Time.
So here are my questions:
Is this typical behavior during a hot summer? Do those of you with cellars notice seasonal fluctuations like this? I’ll note that my cellar is basically located below ground and under my garage, and one of the walls is essentially the side of the house but 80% underneath ground.
Are there any ramifications to having my chiller on all the time for a few months out of the year? The obvious concerns are electricity costs and wear/tear of the unit. Any other unexpected issues?
Reasonably, if I am not storing wine for investment purposes but rather my own long term use and enjoyment, is there are problem with these long term fluctuations over seasons? Is there any issue with wine being at 57 in the winter and 62 in the summer? My suspicion is that as long as it’s “coldish” rather than room temp I’m probably ok, but I’m no expert.
Any thoughts on how one might remedy these issues, short of entirely redoing the insulation (which is really not even an option, as it’s a totally finished and functional cellar).
No definitely not big daily fluctuations. I’ve been checking more frequently lately given these new issues, and the temps are all within a 1-2 degree range on a daily – even weekly – basis.
My understanding is that most underground wine caves fluctuate between 50-60 degrees depending on the season, with 55 as the average. As long as the wines aren’t subject to repeated wide temperature swings, there should be no major problems with slow, mild seasonal variability. The rate of aging approximately doubles every ~18 degrees, so the higher the temperature, the faster the aging. At higher temps, the wines won’t make old bones, but you might actually see a benefit if you tend to drink wines on the younger side.
I don’t have a built-in wine cellar so can’t comment on that much, but looks like you have an appropriate unit for the cubic feet… aside from insulation of the walls, any issues with airflow in/out of the cellar? I would imagine the other possibility is loss through doorways and windows.
Sounds like either the cellar isn’t sufficiently insulated for the unit size or the unit has some problems.
One question - what is the air temp. surrounding the cellar? I.e., is it in a basement where it is otherwise cool? Or is it against an exterior wall?
Keep in mind that if it’s the latter, you’re looking to create about a 30 degree drop, whereas in the winter you’re creating a much smaller one. That’s easier to create, and insulation is less critical.
All that said, agree with others that the relatively modest temperature changes in your wine shouldn’t be a problem, but I would get things checked on so that you don’t run through coolers faster than you shoulld.
I believe in good storage but I wouldn’t worry about a 57º-62º yearly fluctuation.
I would think, though, that a properly insulated small space such as yours should be able to maintain your desired cellar temp without the cooler running 24/7, if the cooler is correctly sized for your cellar.
More important than engineer-caliber statistical analysis and spreadsheets would be a high school level understanding of chemistry or physics. Water (even with 15% alcohol) has a relatively high specific heat capacity, so the few degree temp fluctuation in the air is causing little temp change in the wine.
That doubling every 18 degrees is pretty interesting. Do you remember where you heard of this? That’s such a specific number that it almost sounds like it was scientifically derived.
No airflow issues, but the greatest heat loss is around the door. It’s made of wood and glass (wood border with a rectangle glass center). I’ve done some extensive measuring with an IR laser thermometer, and this is definitely where the higher temps are located. This is also probably why there is a decreasing front-back temperature gradient in my cellar, since the door is towards the front.
I had some concerns about the insulation as well. When I initially had a hard time getting the temp down to 55, I was in constant communication with the contractor. They initially were going to swap out the unit, but we decided against it when it became clear that the room could get down to 57 without a problem. We ultimately agreed that it’s a challenge to create a room sized refrigerator in one’s home, and that 57 was basically as good as 55. Now, however, I’m not sure…
Regarding the location, it is in a basement with two cellar walls being interior basement walls and two being exterior building walls (though they’re 80% below ground). So I think that is a major part of the immediate problem I am having in regards to these summer temps. I’m just not quite sure what to do about it. I’m thinking of letting it go and just paying the extra electrical fees, since it seems that most agree that 57 vs 62 for a few months a year is not going to seriously compromise the wine integrity.
Does anyone think that a more powerful chiller would do any good? It seems that mine is the correct size/power for the cellar cubic feet, but…
I have a passive cellar but during the hot months I can cut into the house AC and lower the temps from the low 60’s to the high 50s. In the winter, its in the low 50s. Your cellar sounds fine except for the electric bills. FWIW, you should monitor temps at the highest rack and the floor. Usually there is less variation and cooler at the floor. If so, keep the long ageing stuff near the floor.
Well I have advanced degrees in biochemistry and mathematics, so it’s not that I’m struggling with the concepts of heat transfer. The problem is that there is nothing in thermodynamics that tells me what happens subjectively to a bottle of Bordeaux subjected to seasonal fluctuations in temperature over a 30 year period. Know what I’m saying? There’s a reason that 55 degrees is the often recommended temperature, and not 62.
Even moreso, though, I’m quite a bit more worried about the lifespan of my unit – and my electrical bill – than the integrity wine.
Yeah, that creates some challenge, but not a big one. Ground temperatures don’t go up nearly as much as air temps. Basically you have 90% of your cellar wall space below ground or against conditioned space, so those temps should be more like 75 degrees, not 90.
I’ve been following on-line discussions about storage for years and have never hear anything like that 18-degree rule. For starters, I don’t believe that all elements in the wine age uniformly. Brettanomyces multiplies much faster above a certain temperature, I recall someone posting some years back – a temperature that wouldn’t necessarily harm the wine if it were free of brett. Likewise, I doubt that aceto bacteria speed up their production of acetic acid at the same rate that purely biochemical reactions accelerate as temperature rises.
Also, I don’t think there’s such a fixed range for underground caves. I think the range is much wider depending on the depth, outside climate and geology.
Since your unit is rated for up to 1,500 cf and you have 1/3 of that, there are several possibilities. In no particular order, you may be underinsulated, your unit may be defective (coolant leak or fan not working), or it may be installed improperly (such as not having proper clearance for venting the heat or venting into a closet).
When the unit is running, use your IR thermometer to measure the temp of the air that it is blowing into the room. If it isn’t blowing at 53-54 degrees or less, your cellar will NEVER reach 55. Then measure the warm air side. It should be considerably higher in temp, as much as 20-30 degrees higher. If not, your unit isn’t working properly. What is the overall ambient air temp in the room you are venting to? If it is more than 80 degrees (or about 25 degrees more than the cellar temp should be), these through the wall units won’t function properly. About the best they can do is cool to 25 degrees lower than average ambient temp.
After taking these temps, unplug the unit for an hour or so to make sure there isn’t ice buildup on the coils. Plug back in and measure the in and out temps again. You can also try a room fan to blow the hot air away from the unit.
Is your contractor really a specialist in building cellars or simply a carpenter who only focuses on the final buildout? Frankly the comment about your agreeing with him that it’s hard to build a room size refrigerator in a home is assinine. It’s actually easy if you do it right – vapor barrier, isulation, properly sized cooling system. Chilling a room to 55 is a hell of a lot easier than building a room size refrigerator that has to maintain sub-40 degree temps.
Last, but not least, unless you are going to actually remedy the problem(s), then in the summer you might as well dial the cooler to a higher set point, such that it will briefly cycle off occasionally. If the best it can do is maintain 61-62 degrees, set it to that or even a touch higher. Setting it to 57 doesn’t make it cool any lower or faster – it’s maxed out. By giving it a break, you allow the cools to melt off any ice buildup. Yes, it may raise the cellar temp a degree or so, but it will at least give your unit a chance to cycle on and off as it was designed.
Got it. I’m no chemist, but a quick peak at some Wikipedia entries make it appear that the equation applies to elemental reactions and there are lots of limitations to its application.
There’s no hard and fast rule about what temperature difference will double a reaction rate - it depends on the activation energy for a particular chemical reaction. Reactions in wine are presumably all over the energy range, so their rates will change differently when temperature changes - that’s why just raising the temperature of a wine doesn’t simply age it faster, it ages differently (from experience, in a bad way).
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