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+--- Thread: Cellar in Phoenix (/thread-21661.html)
- hotwine - 09-07-2000
Winoweenie, how about telling us about your cellar? Noticed under Paraphernalia (whew!) that you're proud of it. Since you live in a hot dry climate, and my environs are hot & humid, maybe I (and others) can learn something. Is it below ground, or above? In the house, or outhouse? Custom-built, or cobbled together? Surrounded by a/c units, or naturally cooled (In Phoenix? Nah!)<P>Hotwine (and getting hotter. It was 111 here on Turesday, but cooled to 102 yesterday)
- Innkeeper - 09-07-2000
WW signed out for two weeks up on Talk To Your Moderators last night. Praise the Lord that it looks like your weather broke today. We are warming up from our close to freezing temperatures the last two nights! Might even get back to 70 tomorrow.
- hotwine - 09-07-2000
Ah, I missed WW's sign-out. Thanks, IK.<BR>Yeah, it was only 90 degrees an hour ago. Wonderful!<BR>The cellar temp is 81 (!), and slowly cooking my modest 275 btl collection.<BR>If we could figure a way to ship some of your cold air down here, and some of our scalding heat up your way, we could make a mint!
- Bucko - 09-07-2000
IK, it has cooled off here as well.... looks like it is time for a package.<P>Bucko
- Innkeeper - 09-07-2000
Sounds great. Thanks Bucko.
- mrdutton - 09-07-2000
Yeah, double great! Cuz when it is time for a package from Bucko to IK it is then also time for a package from IK to MrD!!!<P>Can't hardly wait.............
- winoweenie - 09-07-2000
Hotsie and all, Am leaving in the A.M. for Vail but got back from San Diego earlier than expected today . To answer you question, my cellar was custom-built by one of my son-in-laws who`s a builder in Denver. He came down for 3 weeks in 83 and here`s what we did. The cellar is above ground. It`s insulated with 2-inches of solid insulation and 19&1/2 inches of fiberglass. I use a refrigeration compressor placed outside the room with a seperate blower and humidifier in the cellar itself.I can take the temp to 42* and the humidity as high as 85*. I`ve found that 52* plus or minus 2* and humidity of 70* plus or minus 5* makes for ulimate storage here in the desert. My racking is 2x12`s , tongue&grooved diamonds that hold 18 bottles per diamond. This allows for maximum storage in minimal space.In 17 years I have only had 1 Corked bottle. Wallace has seen the jernt and may have some other perspective to offer. I`ll guarantee it works. winoweenie. I`m Gone . Forgot. The size is 8-ft wide x 36-ft long x 10 ft ceiling. This gives racking on both sides and even floor storage for stuff.
- winoweenie - 10-04-2000
Hotwine, forgot about this post. Have you done anything to save your bottles from the vinegar-bin? A big closet can also be modified . winoweenie
- hotwine - 10-04-2000
WW, no, I haven't done anything yet to seriously address the problem - simply confining purchases to inexpensive wines (<$20) and keeping inventory to <300 bottles.<BR>Options so far include:<BR>- building a separate prefabbed wine house, using mail-ordered design and materials;<BR>- bringing old storm cellar up to specs<BR>- buying at least one large wine cabinet.<P>The wine cabinets would work fine, but she wants them relegated to the garage, and they wouldn't last long there, because of the summer heat. They seem to work best when the temperature differential is only about 20 degrees, and we'd be looking at twice that, which would burn 'em out pretty quickly.<P>Bringing the old storm cellar up to specs would require encapsulating it in insulation to isolate it from the bedrock in which it sits, which is coupling heat through the floor into the cellar from exposed surfaces.<BR>Cost estimate from our consultant is about $5k for that option - which would buy a new above-ground pre-fabbed wine house. So I'm leaning toward that last option. Cooler temps are arriving, so that's taking the heat off (!) the problem for now. <BR>We don't have a closet we could dedicate to wine storage.<BR>I think the real solution is going to be to move off and leave this damned heat (and drought) behind within the next year or two. Have already started looking by mail and the Internet in VA, TN, NC, WA, OR, GE, IT and FR.<BR>