Turning storage room in to wine cellar. How much cooling do I need?

My wine fridge is running out of space so I’m planing on doing what I’ve always wanted to do and throwing out the junk in this storage closet and turning it in to an actual small wine cellar.





The walls are barely insulated (R = 0.52) The ceiling and floor are uninsulated.

I’m thinking of throwing 1.5” of EPS insulation on the walls and 3” on the ceiling.

Total space to be cooled approx 165 cubic feet.

target temperature 54 F.

Expected Max temp outside the two lateral walls and door 75.
Temp behind back wall and floor 65 (below ground).

Max temp over ceiling might get to 85 at the peak of summer.

I’ve been looking at cooling systems and I have absolutely no idea how much cooling I need for this. Is there a way to calculate this (or guestimate it)?

 

It's not as easy as it sounds. Wine storage requires higher than normal humidity levels to keep the corks from drying out. Since you are not in a basement your unit will need to supply extra cooling.

There are three basic systems:
1) thru the wall.
2) remote mounted and ducted.
3) wall mounted unit with remote condenser.

Have you thought about what you will use to cool it ?
I'm thinking that your "cellar" is going to require a complete vapor barrier.

 

it is in a basement but it needs additional cooling anyways.

I’ll address humidity separately with an independent unit if things get to dry.

I was thinking of a separate condenser and evaporator set up but mounting the condenser above the ceiling which is an un conditioned space that is part of the houses fresh air intake. But if that proves too complicated I’ll mount it outside.

The guys who service my home A/C have said they can do the installation of the coolant lines so that part I’m not planning on doing myself but everything else I hope to DIY.

 

I have 17" of space between the ceiling of this room and the floor above. That seems like enough space for most 1/2 hp units. But i'm not sure if 1/2 hp is going to cut it.

 

Don't over think this. Monitor your basement temps for a while. I'm assuming that you are only storing reds. If your temps stay between 55* and 65* you are good. I have stored wine in my below grade basement for years and never had a problem with temperature being so off that it had any impact on the wine. Humidity is less of a problem with modern wines. Many have artificial corks or my favorite, screw caps. Traditional cork caps are pretty tightly sealed. High humidity will cause mold on the labels though.

 

Might be easier to simply buy a larger wine refrigerator?

 

Cwbuff - I currently have a wine fridge down there I know I need to add cooling, I can’t keep a stable temp in the summer if I don’t. I don’t need a lot of cooling though since I’m only trying to drop the temp less than 20F. I obviously don’t want to either buy too much cooling and wast money nor buy too little and regret it. Im just trying to get a rough estimate of how many btus id need.