The Auswine Forum

Hi,

Been a long time since I have been on the forum, but I was wondering if I could get some advice on the cellar cooling system. The cellar is fitted with a Kirby system the same as what would be installed in a cold room i.e. condenser outside and circulation fan/evaporator inside. The cellar is about 3m x 2.5 m in size. I have just had the system serviced and the technician questioned the set up with the fan inside only running during a cooling cycle. He suggested that the fan should be running 24hrs a day like a normal cool room to ensure better temp distribution. My thought is that it is not ideal to have air continuously circulating or blowing through a cellar. How does your cellar cooler work or do you have any thoughts.

cheers Gerry

Interesting one Gerry.

In theory a well positioned gentle fan blowing 24x7 would promote more even temps throughout the cellar, but I'd be surprised if it's actually necessary as there is not likely to be any real hot spots due to the mostly static nature of the cellar contents and their thermal mass.

Ideally if you want to take it further, put a min/max thermometer down low somewhere near your precious bottles, then another one up high where the highest bottles are stored and see what kind of differential there is across a few normal days and a few rather hot days...

Cheers
Tim

gpk wrote:He suggested that the fan should be running 24hrs a day like a normal cool room to ensure better temp distribution. My thought is that it is not ideal to have air continuously circulating or blowing through a cellar. How does your cellar cooler work or do you have any thoughts.

I don't know what system they use at my offsite at Kennards, but the air flows 24x7.

Hi Gerry

The Fondis units generally work all day with pretty good results. There's air flow but little or no vibration. I imagine you could use a similar set up in Mount Mee that we have in Yeppoon.

Say hi to the old girl

Cheers

Luke

Hi Gerry
Hope all is well up top of the hill.
I've had enough wine out of your cellar to know that the storage conditions are top notch. Unless this issue limits the life of the Kirby system, because it switches on and off all the time, I'd just keep doing what you're doing.

Hi Gerry,

Good to see you posting. Hope you and the family are all well.

I have the same system and my fan inside the cellar runs 24/7. I asked if it could only turn on when required and the refrigeration technician said it's better if it runs all the time. I would have thought it wasn't needed but it he claimed it was. I suppose it distributes the cold air better but that is only a guess.

When I build a bigger better cellar, if finances allow, I'd like to go the Fondis route (or something similar) mainly for better humidity control.

Cheers
Ian

My mate just put this in
Fan seems to run all the time
Any one had experience with them?

https://www.bromic.com/refrigeration/rdv201- ... ystem.html

So, I wired up the fan to run 24 hrs a day as per others. The evaporator is mounted on the roof and the air flow does not directly hit any stored wine and bounces of the wall's, so my thought process is that continued circulation through the chiller will give a more stable/even air temp in the cellar plus possible less run time. On a side note I think I had a bit of a lucky break as my unit would probably have died in the foreseeable future. The radiator of the condenser was complexly blocked with dog hair and a stray plastic bag, the fan motor sounded worse than the gympie rattler (which originally alerted me to get some to take a look at it) and in general the old girl need a bit of tender loving care. All is good and the run times of the unit seem a lot shorter and longer in between.

cheers Gerry

Any reason you're using a cool room unit, and not a dedicated wine cellar cooler?

Probably a cost thing at the time of install. For about the same price as a split AC unit you can run the temp down to what ever temp you want ie. 12 to 15 deg c vs. a split system which would struggle at a lower temp. Next level at an extra cost would be a wine specific cooler with humidity control.

Cheers Gerry

What are you paying for a refrigeration unit? You seem to be able to get a cellar cooler for about $3.5k, though not one with humidity control (which I think is much less of a concern, and can be managed in other ways) - be surprised if you could get a refrigeration unit for significantly less than that?