I have searched for plans on building a wine cabinet. Most, actually,
all that I have seen so far are either racks or nice cabinets meant to
store a few (<100) bottles at an uncontrolled temperature. I am trying
to build an insulated cabinet to keep about 200 bottles of wine. I am
planning on having some sliding shelves, traditional "X" type racks
meant to store 4-6 of the same wine, and space on the bottom for full
cases.
I guess my real questions are:
1) What is the right way to insulate this. I was going to use 1.5"
thick foam on the outside between plywood using a 2x4 frame. Should I
also insulate the bottom and top? My guess is yes.
2) How well do you think the 2x4 frame with plywood would be adequate?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
In article <[email protected]>,
G8RRPH <[email protected]> wrote:
>I have searched for plans on building a wine cabinet. Most, actually,
>all that I have seen so far are either racks or nice cabinets meant to
>store a few (<100) bottles at an uncontrolled temperature. I am trying
>to build an insulated cabinet to keep about 200 bottles of wine. I am
>planning on having some sliding shelves, traditional "X" type racks
>meant to store 4-6 of the same wine, and space on the bottom for full
>cases.
>I guess my real questions are:
>1) What is the right way to insulate this. I was going to use 1.5"
>thick foam on the outside between plywood using a 2x4 frame. Should I
>also insulate the bottom and top? My guess is yes.
>2) How well do you think the 2x4 frame with plywood would be adequate?
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Do absolutely nothing for a while (because it would be a waste to work
on a wine storage device without full knowledge). Buy, borrow, or
steal the following book:
How and Why to Build a Wine Cella
by Richard M. Gold Ph.D.
available at Amazon for $25.95 (3rd edition)
older editions probably at your livrary.
Read the whole book. Several times. Then go through the calculations
of temperature swing, given your volume and insulation. Then build.
Oh, by the way, it will also take you many hours to recover from
laughing too hard while reading this book. It seems that the good
Dr. Gold was never quite sober when writing this book. The book is
wonderfully filled with information, but extremely humorous.
Here would be my seat-of-the-pants estimate: First, consider if it is
possible to use a wine storage room in the basement instead. Failing
that ...
For 100 bottles, you need a big cabinet (something like a closet
size), in particular if you are using diamon-shape (X type) bins,
which are not very efficient. In stead of those bins, consider using
shelves with half-circle holes drilled for bottles; for an example
look here:
http://www.mckusick.com/~mckusick/images/winecellar.jpg
This is particularly advantageous in earthquake country.
You have to insulate all 6 sides of the cabinet (yes, I said 6).
Leaving for example the door uninsulated will nearly completely wipe
out the advantage of insulating the other sides. Insulating the door
is particularly tricky, as you have to work hard to avoid air gaps.
Then, if you use 2x4 walls, you can get 3.5 inches of really good
insulation in there (for example polyisocyanurate, one of the
tradenames is R-max). Look for stuff that is about R7 per inch.
With 2x4 walls, the cavities solidly filled with insulation (foamed in
at the edges), and a 1/2" plywood skin inside and out, it should be
quite sturdy.
Enjoy.
--
The address in the header is invalid for obvious reasons. Please
reconstruct the address from the information below (look for _).
Ralph Becker-Szendy _firstname_@lr _dot_ los-gatos _dot_ ca.us
<_firstname_@lr_dot_los-gatos_dot_ca.us> wrote in message > Do absolutely
nothing for a while (because it would be a waste to work
> on a wine storage device without full knowledge). Buy, borrow, or
> steal the following book:
> How and Why to Build a Wine Cella
> by Richard M. Gold Ph.D.
> available at Amazon for $25.95 (3rd edition)
> older editions probably at your livrary.
ISBN 0967159806
"G8RRPH" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have searched for plans on building a wine cabinet. Most, actually,
> all that I have seen so far are either racks or nice cabinets meant to
> store a few (<100) bottles at an uncontrolled temperature. I am trying
> to build an insulated cabinet to keep about 200 bottles of wine. I am
> planning on having some sliding shelves, traditional "X" type racks
> meant to store 4-6 of the same wine, and space on the bottom for full
> cases.
A Hometime episode was on about two months ago dealing with insulation and
temperature control for wine. You might want to see if you can track it
down.