Redoing Home Wine Cellars with the Right Wine Cellar Cooling Unit

>> Click here to visit our WINE CELLAR DESIGN GALLERY

Home wine cellars are wonderful and valuable home features not many homeowners have. It’s a haven of stories all bundled up in one awesome wine collection; Hence it should be kept in the right conditions. But what happens when you hire a contractor who doesn’t know anything about wine cellars or wine preservation? Molds, heat, a hefty electric bill, and wines going stale — these are just some of the adverse effects of not having a proper wine cellar. And these were exactly what our client experienced before we were brought in to fix the problem.  

Learn more about how we solved their issue in this article!

On the ceiling of this home wine cellar is where you’ll see the new wine cellar cooling system.

The Costly Dilemma of this Home’s Wine Cellar  

This lovely home was built with a dedicated wine room filled with wall-mounted wooden wine racks and a single, window-type air conditioning unit. At first glance, the space looked good, design-wise. The problem was the temperature and humidity inside were not at par with the recommended range for proper wine preservation and aging. Even with the AC running continuously every day, it still was not enough to adequately cool the entire wine cellar. You can literally feel that the home wine cellar was not cold enough. 

This was the owner’s problem for three years. And within those three years, they have replaced the air conditioning unit twice. Moreover, molds were appearing on the ceiling, a dire sign that they needed to have it fixed sooner.  

Improving the Capabilities of Broken Home Wine Cellars: The Long-Term Solution 

While constructing a wine cellar properly with the right technical features is more expensive than your regular construction project, it can save you from hefty repair expenses in the long run. Besides the repair costs, you wouldn’t have to worry about your precious wines being at risk.  

When your custom home wine cellar is not functioning correctly, the solution will depend on the kind of problem you have and the scale of it. For this wine cellar, it was clear that it needed to have better insulation and a more powerful wine cellar cooling unit. Apart from that, everything needs to be correctly installed and set up, so the problems will not recur.  

What Are the Types of Wine Cellar Cooling Units? 

This wine room originally had a regular, window-type air conditioning unit which was not powerful enough for the temperature requirements of the room. Moreover, since the wine cellar was adjacent to an external wall, the gaps around the edges of the air conditioning unit made it easy for warm air to enter the cellar and cold air to escape.  

To address that, we replaced it with a split-system cooling unit.  

There are different types of wine cellar cooling units to choose from. In general, there are two categories: a self-contained air conditioning unit and a split-system air conditioning unit.  

Self-Contained Wine Cellar Cooling Unit 

A self-contained air conditioning unit is where the evaporator and the condenser are housed in the same unit. Installing this kind is easier than installing a split system, and this is more or less ideal if there’s an extra room adjacent to the wine cellar where the exhaust can be directed to. Remember that any machine can heat up while operating, so it’s important to have a proper exhaust channel away from your home custom wine cellar.  

Self-contained cooling units for residential wine cellars can either be wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted. Some units also come with humidity controls and gauges, which will help you monitor the climate better.  

Home wine cellars can have custom wine cellar doors of any shape and size. Apart from a new cooling system, this wine room also received a new door!

Split-System Wine Cellar Cooling Unit 

On the other hand, split-system cooling units are designed with commercial-grade cooling capabilities and are often utilized in medium to large-sized wine cellars. As the name suggests, a split system is where the evaporator/air handler and condenser are housed in different units. The machines are connected by either coils or ducts, and that would depend on how much extra space you have on your ceiling.  

In split systems, the condenser is placed right outside the house, while the evaporator is the one installed near the wine cellar. Visually, split systems are better since they don’t take up space inside the cellar. You will only see at least two registers: one for the supply and another for the return flow.  

Split-system A/Cs also produce very minimal noise compared to self-contained units. These are great, especially when you want to have fewer vibrations inside your cellar. While split systems are more expensive than self-contained systems, they do offer plenty of advantages.  

How to Choose Your Home Wine Cellar’s Cooling System? 

The next important question was, which was better for this particular wine storage room? Is it a self-contained unit or a split system A/C? 

Our team conducts a series of assessments to help determine which type of wine cooling would serve a particular wine cellar best. The most important is the heat load calculation, wherein we assess the ambient temperatures of a room and measure its cooling requirement.  

A heat load calculation considers the following: 

• The size and other dimensions of the room 
• The existing insulation and thickness of the walls and ceilings 
• Its location within the home 
• The materials we plan to use in the new wine cellar design (e.g., glass, wood, metal, etc.) 

Over-the-counter cooling units (whether self-contained or split systems) come with different horsepowers, designs, and special features. So aside from considering the cooling requirements of your wine cellar, we also look at your target design/aesthetic and your budget.  

Is Drywall Enough to Properly Insulate the Entire Room? 

This is one of the most common questions we get from our clients. Drywall is designed to have temperature insulation capacities, among other features. However, since drywall is relatively thin, it is not enough to fully insulate an entire wine cellar for a long time. Homes with drywalls are still reinforced with spray foam insulation to really achieve and maintain the target temperature and humidity. But you shouldn’t worry about the expense, because your investment will pay off for a long time! 

This New Home Wine Cellar Deserved New Custom Wine Racks!

This renovated home wine cellar project boasts an exquisite and functional design, with custom wine racks that harmoniously blend beauty and practicality. The lower section of the cellar features meticulously crafted wooden racks, designed specifically to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the space while providing ample storage for an extensive wine collection. With our new wine racking design, the client was able to have plenty of storage spaces compared to his previous wine cellar.

The surrounding light you see comes from LED strips mounted behind the backer board.

The custom wooden racks in the lower section are both elegant and efficient. They are designed with X-bins, which not only add visual interest but also offer an efficient storage solution for wine bottles. While these X-bins allow for easy organization and retrieval of wines, they’re also space savers because you can stack the bottles on top of each other safely. Adjacent to the X-bins are horizontal wine shelves that provide a classic and timeless storage option, allowing for the secure placement of bottles in a horizontal position to preserve their quality.

Moving upward, the upper sections of the wine cellar feature the striking presence of triple-deep metal wine cellar pegs in a sleek black finish from VintageView. These pegs create a contemporary and minimalist look, emphasizing the modern design elements of the space. The triple-deep configuration of the pegs maximizes storage capacity, accommodating a significant number of wine bottles while maintaining easy access for selection and retrieval.

Adding to the functionality of the wine cellar is a built-in custom decanting table, which serves as a focal point of the space. The decanting table is designed with a large arch, exuding elegance and sophistication. It provides a dedicated space for wine enthusiasts to aerate and prepare their wines before enjoying them to their fullest potential. The decanting table is equipped with two sub-closing drawers, offering storage for essential wine accessories, such as corkscrews, stoppers, and wine pourers. Additionally, spacious cabinets beneath the table provide additional storage for larger wine-related items or even a collection of wine glasses.

To the upper right side of the wine cellar, we thoughtfully incorporated a stemware rack. This rack was strategically positioned for easy access and display of stemware, allowing the client to showcase his finest glassware and keep them conveniently close at hand. Below the stemware rack, there are additional storage spaces, providing room for storing wine-related accessories, such as decanters, wine aerators, or even a collection of wine books.

An Ingenious Lighting Approach for Wall-Mounted Wine Displays

The lighting design of this home wine room showcases a brilliant and innovative approach to illuminate the space and highlight the wine collection in a truly elegant manner. We incorporated the use of backer boards, cleverly positioned half an inch away from the main wall, allowing for the installation of LED strip lights behind them.

The positioning of the backer boards created a subtle gap between the main wall and the racks, providing a discreet space to mount the LED strip lights. Every time the LED strip lights are activated, a mesmerizing halo-like glow surrounds the metal wine cellar pegs. This illumination not only draws attention to the wine bottles themselves but also adds a touch of elegance and sophistication to the overall presentation. The soft glow beautifully accentuates the sleek and modern design of the metal pegs, creating a visual spectacle that captures the onlooker’s gaze.

A mix of metal and wooden racks look great inside contemporary home wine cellars.

Choose the Right Wine Cellar Cooling Unit, Lighting, Racking and Builder for Your Home Wine Room!

Coastal Custom Wine Cellars, headed by wine cellar expert Andre Trabazos, can work on all types of wine cellars including glass wine cellars. We find the right solutions to your problems and needs, and we offer complete wine cellar construction services from the design to building your cellar and periodically maintaining it.  

If you have an existing wine cellar that’s not up to standards, don’t hesitate to reach out to us, and we’ll schedule a visit to your home or business! We value every wine collection as if it was our own, and we love doing the hard work to create the best wine cellar for yours!  

For all your home wine cellar cooling, insulation, design, racking, door, flooring, and lighting needs, the Coastal Custom Wine Cellars team is here to assist!  

You can reach us at +1 (949) 200 – 8134.