I’ve the fortunate opportunity to build from scratch, so the design of this space was something I spent some time pondering. It is nothing compared to the great majority of cellars around here, but the engineering involved and fact that I was able to make it completely passive is rewarding. I also did all of the design work, from mechanical work, to materials, to designing the rack (very simple rack).
First off, this is in a basement. The exterior concrete walls are on the back and right sides. While the basement walls were all done in closed cell spray-foam, I chose to do NO insulation on these two walls. This provides cooling and humidity. To accommodate this I selected green board (moisture resistant gypsum board typical in bathrooms) for these walls, and continued throughout. The left wall and door wall are interior to conditioned spaces. I placed open cell spray foam in all stud cavities. The door is an exterior Therma-Tru door, simply re-tasked for the interior job. Now how else to keep it cool in the warmer season? Well, the entire house is radiant floor heat running on two geothermal heat pumps. We ran a bypass line for the loop in the floor of this room, meaning it doesn’t receive heated water, it receives the 40-50*F water that returns from the well loops. The floor is engineered walnut, but glued directly to the concrete for more efficient conductivity. Oh, that light strip, LED of course! Later we will be popping some bottles as we celebrate taking them out of the boxes they have been in for two years.
Looks like if there are slots for about 450 bottles if single stacked and single deep. If you can go double deep or stack bottles within those racks, the volume goes way up!
Freakin’ awesome! The cooling system in the floor is genius. Although that would technically not be passive, it’s very efficient use of your existing system.
Great job - nothing beats putting on a tool belt and doing it yourself. What wood species did you use for the racks? Looks like standard one-by stock that I use all the time for projects.
Ha, thanks guys. The stigma of basements (regarding property value) is undeserved when done well, they can be very useful.
Straight capacity is 480 bottles, but as said, could easily stack to double that.
I forgot to mention the ceiling is also spray foamed with open cell. What I have basically created is a cooler box so I don’t see any temp gradient issues. This time of year the floor loops are shut off, and it is 56* in there.
Dennis you got me. It’s passive right now (the loop is completely throttled), with the potential to be non-passive in the summer. We will see if it is needed.
The wood is poplar. It is very economical and renewable. But if stained well and lacquered well, it actually looks pretty darn nice. We will also be using the space as a root cellar and for storing canned goods, along with running fermentations.
Yup - I’ve built a kitchen island, custom cabinets and custom wainscoting out of the stuff. I’ll actually be stopping by the lumber yard on the way home today to pick-up some poplar stock to finish our new fireplace mantel and accompanying custom bookshelves over the long weekend.
You’ve given me a good idea of what I’ll do once we get past the fix-up-and-flip stage of home ownership.
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