There’s been debate in the past over the importance of humidity in a wine cellar – i.e. “it doesn’t matter because humidity is 100% under cork” vs. “humidty under 70% and your wine will be ruined!” – and I’m not looking to settle that here.
What I’m interested in is what people living in cold climates have done to maintain the humidity in their wine cellars. I live in Maine, and I recently finished a small wine cellar in my basement, underneath the stairs. Now that it’s cold outside, the dew point in my basement has dropped to around 32.5 degrees (F). That translates to about 25% RH at 70 degrees. I could go a little higher than that, but once the dew point gets up around 40 degrees, I’m going to get a lot of condensation on the basement windows and potentially in the walls and rim, where condensation is bad news.
My cooling unit draws from and vents to the unfinished half of my basement. Right now, with the dew point at 32.5, the RH in my wine cellar is running around 42-43%. I’d be more comfortable if I could at least get it up in the mid-upper 50s. Any tips or tricks that have worked for you?
I use a towel hanging in a bucket of water. It’s very dry here in Colorado and the bucket evaporates quickly but gives a big boost to the RH as long as I keep it filled.
On the flip side of this, I find my wine storage cabinets keep a higher humidity in the winter time due to less cycling of the cooling units with the house being cooler. Would have thought this to be the other way with warmer moist air int eh summer time.
I use a towel hanging in a bucket of water. It’s very dry here in Colorado and the bucket evaporates quickly but gives a big boost to the RH as long as I keep it filled.
I’m in Las Vegas and do this as well. Keeps my RH at 60-70. High enough to keep my cigars as well.
A single towel in a single bucket of water raises the humidity of an entire basement cellar from being too dry up to 60-70%? That seems hard to believe. I would have thought that would hardly register on the humidity of the air in the basement.
Interesting that the “towel in water bucket” trick is the universally accepted method for increasing cellar humidity. Seems a little “janitor’s closet” to me, but I do like cheap DIY solutions.
Chris, my instinct is to agree with you, but I’m kind of intrigued by the consensus here, so I’m going to try it. I’ll report back.
If the water is evaporating fairly quickly, that indicates it’s making a difference, doesn’t it? Particularly in a fairly small, enclosed, sealed room.
My cool water humidifier only draws down a gallon or gallon and a half in 24 hours in a 1,000 square foot apartment, but that makes a huge difference in reducing static electricity and keeping skin and sinuses from drying out. And that’s a much larger space that’s not at all sealed.
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