Insulated shelving unit as a fermentation chamber

Has anyone built a fermentation chamber around a steel shelving unit? The cooling would be provided by a window a/c.

I was thinking of building a lightweight frame around it to provide the insulation. On three sides, there would be vapor-barrier plastic, fiberglass fill, and an outer layer of polystrene. The front would have doors of a similar construction.

A shelf would make better use of my garage space and would provide both a space for fermenting and cellaring bottles.

Thoughts?

I would look mor into the "Metro" chrome wire shelving that you see throughout the restaurant industry...now cheaply reproduced through the wonders of big box stores like this...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-48-i...lving-Unit-6T60184872C/100655787#.Uj9QP8asgvw

Just remember the three rules of of a cooler: insulation, air sealing, circulation. The first and second are a lot harder if you are using the a form factor that allows you to access the full width of a shelving unit.

Onkel_Udo said:

I would look mor into the "Metro" chrome wire shelving that you see throughout the restaurant industry.

Click to expand...

Good suggestion. I was thinking of drilling holes through the shelves, but these are of course better in that regard. I was under the mistaken impression that these types of shelves had lower capacity. Glad I looked at your link.

The real stuff has some pretty impressive capacity but I am not sure about the big box store clones. How many gallons per foot are we talking (assuming 8# per gallon). I do know the 18" shelving units we used we 500# evenly distributed. for a 4' unit.

Typically Metro racks are rated at anywhere from 250-500lbs any any given time like stated, make sure you distribute weight evenly. figure a 5 gallon fermentor weighs 40-45lbs, you should be safe putting 6 or 7 or so on there. It also depends on the clip type. I'm building a ferm chamber out of just wood and polystyrene sheets. It will definitely be strong enough to double as a shelf.

I've got some Metro style shelves on order as they were on sale, but out of stock at my local big box.

Given that I could probably fit at most 4 carboys across a shelf, I should be good for weight. I estimate a shelf full of bottles would weigh on the order of 250 lbs, so again, good.

On wood: if I had the wood lying around I would have done that (as I did for the other shelves in my garage and pantry), but I figure that I'd end up spending closing to $50 in wood to build an equally strong shelf. The cost may be flipped for other people.