Having your own wine room is the next step up from wine racks stacked all over your basement. Before you start randomly nailing boards, you need to determine keep the room of your dreams at the correct temperature.
The temperature you are going to want to maintain is 56 degrees Fahrenheit or 14 degrees Celsius, adequate for storage of all types of wines. You don't need to know put a satellite in orbit in order to achieve these results. You do need some basic math skills and a cheap calculator would be handy.
Find the Cubic Footage
In case you were not paying attention in geometry, cubic footage is the area contained within an area. In this case it would be your dream wine room. It is a simple formula and you will need three measurements: length, width, and height.
For example, lets find the cubic footage of a wine room that is twelve feet long, eight feet high and the distance from the floor to the ceiling is six and a half feet. You will need to multiply these three measurements. Using the example described above, 12 X 8 X 6.5 equals 624 of cubic footage or volume of space in your wine room. Next, you need to determine how many British Thermal Units (BTU) it will take to cool the space.
Determine Your BTU Needs
We'll continue to use the wine room described above as an example. If the average ambient temperature outside of your wine room is approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit, a fairly constant average in most homes, your calculation is simple.
To achieve optimal storage temperature for any wine room you need 8.3 BTUs of cooling capacity for each cubit foot of space. Multiply your cubic feet, in this case 624, by 8.3. And 624 X 8.3 = 5,179 BTUs in this case. Now it's time to go shopping.
When to Buy
First off, don't count on your central air conditioner, that is unless you want to be known as Popsicle Toes. A vent from a home AC is not going to be adequate. You will need an independent unit to take care of all that bottled elixir.
There is a wide variety, in both price and gadgetry, to help you achieve your goal, and online retailers are your best bet for price and quality.
The chilling unit is one of the first things to purchase once you know the size of your room. Accommodations in framing to support the unit and an electric supply will be needed, so go shopping for what you need before you start pounding nails. You can handle the final installation yourself, but it is strongly recommended that any electrical work be done by a professional.
Tags: wine room, cubic footage, this case, will need, your wine
