Wine cellar air conditioning

Why ordinary air conditioning is the wrong tool

Comfort air conditioning is built for people. It aims for around room temperature, it switches on and off as the room warms and cools, and it takes moisture out of the air as it runs. A wine store needs almost the opposite: a cooler, very steady temperature all year, fairly high humidity so corks don’t dry out, little vibration and no light from the equipment. A standard split in a cellar can dry the air, struggle to run at low setpoints and, in winter, try to cool when it is cold outside, which many comfort units are not designed to do.

That is why wine rooms and cellars are usually cooled with specialist cellar conditioning units, which are designed to hold a lower setpoint and keep humidity up. Your wine merchant or the unit maker can advise on the exact conditions for your collection.

The room matters as much as the unit

A cellar unit can only hold steady conditions in a room that is built for it. Before choosing equipment, we look at:

• Insulation: walls, ceiling and door need to keep heat out, or the unit will run constantly and struggle in summer.
• Vapour control: a cool, humid room next to warm rooms can cause condensation in the walls if the build-up is wrong. The person building the room should get this right.
• The door: glazed doors look good but let in heat. A well-sealed, insulated door helps a lot.
• Lighting: low-heat lighting, switched off when the room is not in use.
• Heat sources: boilers, hot water cylinders, ovens or a sunny wall next to the room all add load.

Before you build

The best time to plan cellar cooling is before the room is finished. Once racking, panelling and glass are in, adding insulation or a duct route is hard. If you are converting a basement or building a wine room, talk to us early, alongside your builder or designer. We can tell you where the cooling equipment and pipework or ducts could go, how much space to leave, and what the builder needs to provide, such as a drain, a power supply and an access panel for servicing.

Types of cellar cooling

Cellar units come in a few forms. Through-wall units sit in a wall between the cellar and another room, and reject heat into that room, so the room next door needs to cope with it. Ducted units sit in another space and send cool air into the cellar through ducts, which keeps noise and equipment out of the room. Split cellar units have an evaporator in or above the cellar and an outdoor condensing unit, linked by refrigerant pipework, much like air conditioning. Each has its own limits on room size, pipe length and where the heat goes.

On the survey we look at the room, its size and build, and where heat can be rejected. We will tell you honestly which approach suits it, and if your project needs a specialist cellar designer or a product we don’t install, we will say so rather than fit the wrong thing.

Basements, homes and restaurants

Many wine stores are in basements, under-stairs cupboards, converted coal stores or glass wine walls in a dining room or restaurant. Basements can stay cool on their own for much of the year but warm up in summer, and a glass wine wall in a heated room needs much more cooling than a cellar underground. In restaurants and bars, the wine room is often on show, so the equipment needs to be quiet and out of sight.

Getting pipework or ducts out of a basement can be the hardest part. We plan routes carefully, especially in terraces and listed buildings, where outdoor unit siting and wall openings may need consent. See our page on listed buildings.

Noise, siting and neighbours

Cellar units often run for long periods, sometimes through the night. The outdoor or heat-rejection part needs a spot with good airflow and enough distance from bedrooms, yours and the neighbours’. We check the manufacturer’s sound data and the position before we commit, and agree it with you on the survey.

Monitoring

A wine collection is worth protecting. A simple temperature and humidity display in the cellar, and an alarm that alerts you if the unit stops or the room drifts, give you early warning. Many cellar units have a built-in display and fault output, and we can add a separate alarm where needed.

Servicing and F-Gas

Cellar units have refrigeration circuits, fans, drains and filters, and benefit from a yearly check. Like other equipment containing F gas, any work on the refrigerant circuit must be done by an F-Gas certified company. Wine cellar projects are priced after survey on a fixed-price quote.