What to tell architect for wine cellar - new construction?

I’m looking for general advice on what to tell our architect about wine cellar building in terms of insulation, materials, etc. I’ve screenshot the relevant portion of our plans below. The wine room is 11’2 by 5’10 with 18’ ceiling. Plan is for racking to go all the way up and have a library-style slide-y ladder to access the higher bottles.

The house will be made of white brick and located in NW Florida. I’m not sure how much of a concern humidity is and/or if there are cooling units that also control humidity and/or if so if they need to be connected to plumbing? I think if humidity isn’t a concern since we’re in Florida, just having a split and separate thermostat in the wine room would be nice for the sake of convenience.

-The house will have a whole house generator in the case of power loss
-Layout-wise, we do want it to be where it is in terms of having an exterior wall. I know that might make the compressor run harder, but it’s just where I want it in the house. It’s Florida, so no basement (but supposedly white brick is about as good as we can do in terms of heat reflection/insulation).

What should I ask for in terms of insulation or other considerations? Should a mechanical engineer review the plans for temperature calculations (I know for instance in our commercial bailout, AC tonnage was calculated based on a 95 degree day being able to keep the interior temperature at 75)? Any other thoughts?
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the search function will give you all the info you need. My advice: overinsulate, rigid foam, consider cooling system redundancy, avoid diamond bins, look at Richard Gold’s How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar. We’ve done this thread many times.

Make sure the architect you hire understands vapor barriers.

To me, the one “interesting” aspect of your room is the 18 ft. ceiling. I have a fairly hefty cooling system in my well-insulated cellar with an 8 ft. ceiling and I can see a 4 or 5 degree temperature differential between the floor and ceiling right after the system cycles off. I’m certainly not an expert here, but you may want to investigate adding a fan to improve the cooled air circulation or some other method to minimize the temp difference.

I think Scott is being kind!

An 18 ft ceiling in wine ceiling is crazy. Google “thermal mass”. Every wine cellar I have ever seen has a low stud basically to minimize the amount of air space in the cellar. Air has pretty much has zero thermal mass and with an 18 ft stud, I reckon your cooling system with run 24/7 for 6 months of the year. Good luck anyway!

Brodie

Agree this is going to present an additional challenge.

You may want to consult with an HVAC person as to the best way to do this, because I could envision having a system with return ducts at the bottom and supply ducts at the top for the cooling. It’s more than just a split . . .

I’d agree with the above regarding the ceiling height.

It also strikes me that trying to load wine up an 18’ ladder wouldn’t be viable… or at least would become less viable every year you’re in the house.

While the idea of having 18’ ceilings and a library style ladder sounds ‘cool’ (no pun intended), I would rethink it. If you are going that high to boost capacity, meaning you will actually load the upper areas and use them, as I get older the idea of climbing a ladder with a bottle in hand doesn’t excite me. Also, the ladder requires the floor remain clear to move it around, so no stacking boxes on the floor. You could use the higher parts to store only long term agers, but then you are storing them where the air is warmest. I prefer keeping long term agers near the floor.

I, too, would re-think ceiling height. It might look cool but getting on a ladder to retrieve bottles or put them up can be a pain. When I built ours, I made sure that the builder and wine cellar sub were on the same page. The cellar builder knew what they were doing and consulted with both the architect and builder.

Not yet mentioned is the unrealistic width in your floorplan picture. If you assume a few extra inches for insulation and then use single racking on each side you’re looking at under 3 feet width between the racks. That seems nearly impossible narrow. Maybe you can pull off double racking and then a ladder arrangement that pulls out, but again pulling from double racking 15 feet up seems like an awful idea.

Also interior temp at 75 on a 95 degree day? That’s at least 10 degrees too high considering it gets hotter than that in FL! Even more if this is meant to be long term storage.

Looks me to like the laundry/pantry and wine room need to be switched.

Also, what would the weight be on the bottom of an 18’ rack???

Definitely add a ceiling that is 9-12 ft, then you can put a ledge above to put some decorations/trinkets (maybe old 12 L bottle or a wine barrel if looking for a wine theme)

Or Madeira. But watch out for that ladder after having a few glasses. And up and down the ladder one bottle at a time?

I think everyone is spot on with the 18 foot ceilings. I can’t imagine the temp swing on that or what the cost would be to try and keep that evenly cool. I went with 2x6 framing with spray foam insulation and a good portion is subterranean. I’m [still years later] messing with my liquid bottle probe moving it around and testing out the various aspects of the room, shocked at how much things swing with 8’ tall ceilings. I just don’t see keeping an 18’ room balanced.

Plus as someones else pointed out, that ladder will get old. I hate dragging cases down now. Adding having to go up and down and manage inventory, check a bottle, move a case that is no longer where I want it to keep that region or got fragmented… would look cool, great work-out, however just not practical IMO. Lighting could be awkward too, might not be able to see too much up if shining down too bright. Maybe split it in top 2 floors with a spiral stair case and 2 zones of temp control. That is the only thing I would think that might keep it balanced, maybe. Bottom will be wayyyy frigid still, wines will kinda kinda stall on aging if too cold.

Jobs 1A and B are to protect your investment(s) and age your wine properly. The cool factor comes after that.

Good call, will definitely need additional support along the way… but that HVAC is a dealbreaker for me.

I don’t think that’s the temperature being envisioned for the wine cellar - it was only an example.

And it is unusal for the temp to reach 95F in Florida. (It’s the humidity that kills you.)

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Both 75 degrees & 18 ft are too high; Drop ceiling to drop down to 8 or 10 ft ?
I’m in Sofla and my wine cellar has 6 1/2 ft ceilings and is 4 ft in ground and about 10 ft X 13 ft. It keeps a steady 54 degrees with a Whisperkool 8000 unit.

And it is unusual for the temp to reach 95F in Florida. (It’s the humidity that kills you.)

But you have to wonder if this architect has any prior experience with wine cellars.