Wine Cellar - Lighting Advice

[GregT]

If it’s 4 feet high, I imagine it’s an under the counter job?

Anyhow, as far as lighting goes - put a bulb at each of the short ends or just one on top. You don’t need a lot of light. My cellar is about the same size and I only have one pull-chain fixture in there. Don’t forget, you’re not lighting the whole thing, just the space between the shelves. If your space is 7 x 10, you are only lighting a space that’s like 4.5 x 10 if you have shelves on each side. And, even if you use an incandescent bulb, you’re not going to heat the place up all that much.

[Joe_Webb]

My favorite is now a led headlamp, light just when and where you need it. One set of batteries lasted 2+ years.
I have a weird shaped cellar with not enough light in the back to read labels and no great place to pull electricity from.
Led is the way to go, you could also add some color like red or green. That has always been my dream.

[wspohn]

@Joe Webb

My favorite is now a led headlamp, light just when and where you need it. One set of batteries lasted 2+ years.

Did you just grab the one you keep in your bedside drawer…

That is actually a pretty darned good idea. I have low light in my cellar and run out of hands (and batteries) for flashlights. I might just try that!

[L_Goldsmith]

The visual of someone working in their cellar with a headlamp is well, awesome!

[Brent_C_l_a_y_t_o_n]

This thread is making me want to do some work in my cellar…

[Steve_Gautier]

@Chris Kravitz

4/5" ic cans are almost always my first choice.

You don’t want track with a 7’ ceiling.

My first choice would be LED pucks recessed in the ceiling but you will need a lot of them ($$$). Modern T5 florescent bulbs are small and have a good light spectrum, cheap and highly effective but not too pretty. 2 relatively flush fixtures could work as well.

Chris,

Just looked at your website. There are some real nice looking cellars in your gallery.

Do any of the pictures have recessed LED pucks in them? How many do you think you would need for a 17x10 cellar?

Thanks,
Steve

[Chris_Kravitz]

The 8th pic shows a cellar w/ LED pucks (not a great pic though) PM me your email I should have a few more. Most of the cellars shown with an arch have an LED puck in them.

You would need an awful lot (at least 20) for a space that big, unless you have really low ceiling you will be better served with recessed incandescent cans. Retrofit LED bulbs are here now and getting better rapidly.

[JeffreyFoster]

@AndrewH

[u]I’ve started a wine cellar construction project in my (unfinished) basement. Room will be about 7’ x 10’, with a door on one short end, and racking along both long walls (probably double deep on one side). Ceiling is only about 7’, which is fine for a wine cellar.

I’m thinking about lighting. I could go with standard recessed (either Par30 or Par20 bulbs), but the floor joists have a lot of “stuff” in them already (plumbing, A/C) so placement options are somewhat limited, also because of the need to use IC (insulated ceiling) housing for the recessed lights.

An alternative is using track lighting, which gives much greater flexibility on placement. However, with a 7’ ceiling, the fixtures are limited to low profile lights, and those seem to come down about 6" minimum. Fortunately, I’m only 6’ tall, so wouldn’t hit them as a matter of course, but it would be close, and they’d be only just above eye level. They might also block the top row of racking (although probably only a few bottles).

Also, within either category I could use incandescent or halogen, but I’m exploring led lighting (because it’s cooler). Any thoughts on this?

One other thing–for the moderators: Any possibility of creating a separate forum or subforum for cellar-related questions?[/u]

Hello friend sorry for old thread reply but I am working on similar project so can you tell which lighting is best suited in basement

[AndrewH]

I used 4" IC cans (Par 20 bulbs):

My wine cellar project

Not sure if this is “best suited” but it works for me. I have halogen bulbs, which throw off a fair amount of heat, but it’s ceiling level and they aren’t on that long typically.

If I were building a cellar that I expected to spend a lot of time in, I’d probably think more carefully about the heat generated by the lighting, but on the couple of occasions that the lights have been left on I’ve noticed only ~1 degree increase in temperature, which is probably more from light shining on the thermometer than anything.