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Options to cool a wine room


Adam2

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To keep us from going to the offy too much we planned to have a large under-stairs area as a wine room and looking for any clever suggestions on how best to cool this.

 

The area is approx 1.7m deep 2.5m wide and sloped ceiling going from about 2.5m down to 1m. We installed a lot of insulation in walls and ceiling and no UFH of course in that area. The back wall is an outside wall partially below ground and there is no direct sunlight externally or internally into this area. We plan on the front being triple glazed units in a wood frame with PIR installed in any cavities. Idea is to make the door as well sealed as possible so may need a small threshold to optimise this.

 

Target temp will be ~15 degrees and max ambient temp in peak of summer will be about 26 degrees. It's OK if we break the target a little in a few days in the summer - though we plan to mitigate the internal heat with some external shading on the worst days.

 

I'm expecting to use a split AC type unit but looking at "specialist" wine room coolers they get quite pricey, especially compared to regular AC units. Appreciate the specialist ones sometimes also control humidity which I may need to measure and implement some kind of different solution for if I find it is way off.

 

I've seen simple solutions like this which may be too cheap - no idea. Though a single unit I guess is going to be a bit louder inside than a split unit.

 

The internal part does not need to be pretty as can hide the front with a mesh cover and put in a cupboard.

 

Appreciate thoughts on this - not sure what capacity unit I need, would regular AC units be able to maintain a 15 deg temp without working non-stop if not accessed too much?

 

Anyone done something similar?

 

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3 hours ago, Big Jimbo said:

If the back wall is external ? North facing ? Could be as simple as a core drill, and an outside and inside bug grill. A second core drill and a humidity extractor. Simple, but might work, although might be too cool. 

Facing NW issue though is when outside temp is 20+ hence need to have some kind of chiller unit. The room is I reckon about 8m3 so pretty small. I guess a cheap AC unit could do this if the control unit goes down to 15 deg. Would want one that is pretty quiet inside and out though. Also not sure if need planning approval for one as have an ashp on other side of house already....

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11 hours ago, Adam2 said:

Facing NW issue though is when outside temp is 20+ hence need to have some kind of chiller unit. The room is I reckon about 8m3 so pretty small. I guess a cheap AC unit could do this if the control unit goes down to 15 deg. Would want one that is pretty quiet inside and out though. Also not sure if need planning approval for one as have an ashp on other side of house already....

Permitted development rights excludes and heat pump used for cooling, so you need planning permission even if this was your first and only heat pump.

 

You'll need to leave it on 24/7. I don't know what the duty cycle is on a cheap a2a split unit, but I'm guessing you'll need to factor in replacing/repairing it more frequently than usual. Note the DIY install ones are hard to get anyone to work on (at least in my experience, I've spoken to 2 FGas engineers so far, and both gave me the silent treatment after they found it's R290)

 

In winter, it'd be preferrable to have the "outdoor" unit vent into the house, so the removed heat is heating up the rest of the house. Or just turn it off and blow cold air directly in from outside per BJ

 

 

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I saw (maybe on bh) a simple ashp that was a single box located indoors. 1 pipe in, one pipe out. Primitive but wouldn't have to work hard in your circumstances. Then I'd insulate the inside surfaces but perhaps leave the outside wall plain.

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2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Nice - could be great, see they have a few options to consider and some v quiet. Min temp is 17 or 18 on ones I looked at but if they can maintain that think I'd go with the easier install as that temp should be sufficient for my needs.

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12 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I see people in shop doorways at night, their cans of drink seem to be at just the right temperature for drinking, well judging by the number of  empty cans anyway.

 

So you could play statically and say beer and wine at outside temperature is ideal. Or you could say they are (or want to be) drunk and just don't care.

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1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

 

So you could play statically and say beer and wine at outside temperature is ideal. Or you could say they are (or want to be) drunk and just don't care.

Excuse me ! . Unlike beer you don’t drink wine to get drunk . Wine is a biblical gift to find deeper meaning in oneself and save humanity .

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Thanks for the additional valuable comments 🙂

 

Yes @Pocster one day the room will exist, complete with lovely contents, maybe if in time also an iberico leg for crimbo - iris recognition, if you're too drink maybe you'll get blocked 🙂

 

Edited by Adam2
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15 minutes ago, Adam2 said:

an iberico leg

Doesn't need to be chilled. Unopened the fat and salt preserve it indefinitely.

Once started it is just drying of the cut surface that is the slightest issue. Note the standard picture in a Spanish bar.

 

3217a74e947e35c2a84041589f4df077.jpg

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1 hour ago, Adam2 said:

Thanks for the additional valuable comments 🙂

 

Yes @Pocster one day the room will exist, complete with lovely contents, maybe if in time also an iberico leg for crimbo - iris recognition, if you're too drink maybe you'll get blocked 🙂

 

I’ll wait patiently for my invite 

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