Texas fermentation room/ wine cellar.

Broke ground today. Window ac unit and heat bulb, going to wire them up to the eBay aquarium temp controller build. It's a 4 ft by 6 ft closet in my garage. My idea is to keep it at 65 for wine storage and +- 5 degrees for beer frementing as necessary.

Oh yeah, 2 by 6 walls with r 19 insulation. 5300 btu ac. We'll see how well it does this summer in 100 + days.

Looks great! Best of luck.

sub'd!

Put in another half day work on it. Wired in two new outlets on the exterior as my only outlet in the garage ended up in my ferm room. Put in a light, piece of drywall, and framed/ reinforced around the door. I think most of my time was spent looking for tools lost in the garage and scratching my head trying to figure out how to do things.

A lot more work than I had figured. Wired the two outlets with the wrong gauge wire. Thankfully I didn't have all the dry wall up yet so the rewire wasn't too bad. Only shocked myself once. Woops. Just put on a second layer of mud and trimmed out the door today. I put together an eBay aquarium temp controller. Window ac unit should be fine but I'm worried about heating with a lightbulb /s. I hope to have it operational within a week. Damn this drywall stuff. Tomorrow: texture and insulate door. Over budget but still under $400 for everything.

Lookin good. to heat use a couple small space heaters I don't think a couple light bulbs will do the trick. This is my first project for my new house. how will you seal the door to make it air tight?

Very nice! Are you going to have additional insulation on the exterior wall? How are you going to exhaust the a/c unit? Looks good!

This may just be a crazy idea, but if you need to heat and cool, what about using large peltiers? The heat sink would be the hardest part since it would have to go through your wall and be well insulated. But it will heat or cool with the flip of of a switch.

http://www.virtualvillage.com/400w-12v-thermoelectric-cooler-peltier-plate-001540-017.html

It was chilly here last night so I ran a test with one 75 watt light bulb. I closed up the hole for the ac unit as best I could with scrap wood and some towels. I t still had a 1/4 inch gap though. I haven't sealed any corners other than a couple drywalled ones and I dont have any insulation on the floor yet. One 75 watt light bulb warmed the inside from 54 to 66 in just a couple hours. I then left it on all night. When I woke up the inside temp was 64 degrees, outside temp in the 40's. If it gets much colder, I figure I could leave the overhead light on and have the temperature controller light cycle on and off as necessary.

The door is sealed with 1 inch wood trim with that foam door liner stuff. I'll try to get a picture up soon. I put it on last so I could line it up accurately with the door. I also have some expansion foam stuff that I plan on drilling holes in the door and filling the door with??

Exterior wall? I think you mean the houses original exterior wall. I assumed there was not insulation in there so I put a sheet of R4?? thick pink insulation board up. The walls I built have 6inches of fiberglass insulation.

Peltiers would be cool, but I wonder about the cost efficiency. Just don't know much about them.

This looks awesome makes me jealous way to go fellow Houstonian!

It looked like in the pictures dancing the door, the wall on the right is an exterior wall. If that's the case, it warms up and cools with the outside temp.

Here is a picture of the door seal. Going to caulk between the wood too.



The wall to the right is an exterior wall but I put the foam board over it. The back wall is shared with the master bedroom/ bathroom.

I can just see the look on my swmbo's face now.. "You want to build WHAT!?"

Primed the walls. Looking for some artistic ideas to paint on some large sized hops and wine bottles for the exterior




Everything wired up and working well. The ac cycles a little too often. I'll probably put the probe in a jar of sand to stabilize.

I used two of these latched to apply pressure to the door seal.

Will the ac unit heat up the garage much?

I'm in Dallas and think about this type of build all the time.

Also, any moisture issues to worry about?

Subscribed!

tealio said:

Will the ac unit heat up the garage much?

I'm in Dallas and think about this type of build all the time.

Also, any moisture issues to worry about?

Subscribed!

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I'm hoping the heat will be minimal. We are in a well shaded foresty neighborhood. The unit doesn't run that long once it kicks on. It cooled the room from 70ish to 62 in just a minute or two. Of course this summer will be the true test. But I'm hoping with some thermal mass in there(60 + bottles of wine, a couple of full wine carboys and a beer fermenter or two) it won't run too long when it does. This will also keep the humidity high which I guess I kind of want for the wine storage aspect. There is a drain line on the exterior of the window unit that I'll keep an eye on and maybe just collect the condensation water in a bucket and dump when/if needed. Right now my cost is about $420 including the wood I just bought to build a custom wine rack on one of the interior walls.

My wife wasn't too excited about it. I don't think she believed I was actually going to build it with my own $$$(Any Dave Ramsey fans). But the plus sides for her: I will no longer put fermentors in our master closet which is the coldest part of the house. The spare bedroom closet where I store things will gain some usability. And most of this will be out of sight and danger from our 3 and 5 year old boys.

way cool! I would love to do this if I had some real space. Those glass carboys can be dangerous for sure (I have needed a few stitches from one) so it is good to keep them away from (possibly) energetic children.

Good luck getting it all finished.

What kind of insulation did you use - fiberglass ? Foam would have been better.
You probably want to put insulation on the door, else that's a big hole in your
insulation. Suggest ISO foam...

How much cu ft do you have ?

Glass carboys scare me. I was planning on using some of those foam matts on the floor to insulate and protect. I took some from my kids but they took them back to the playroom. Might have to find something else.

I used mostly fiberglass insulation. One wall has a layer of foam board. Is that what ISO foam is. The door has me scratching my head. I know its the weak link but I'm not sure if I want to glue a foam board to the door for cosmetic purposes. I won't be going any lower than 60 degrees. It's only about 170 cubic feet.

If you have a harbor freight nearby you can usually find the foam floor mats sold to relieve your feet in work spaces on sale.

I would love to hear what your electricity usage is like this summer so I can do my own! Hook up a killawhat to it or something.

My garage gets over 100F here in Dallas, I wonder if I would kill an ac unit?

I am very interested in this also... I have been thinking of adding a 8 X 10 or 10 X ?? on the side of my garage and making it a cold storage room. I suppose I could go the length of the garage, about 18 feet I believe. Havent run this past the wife and if we add on the three season room she wants I might not get away with this but I might as well figure out if it's doable or not in the mean time. I have a very large (not sure of the size) AC that is just sitting around doing nothing at the moment. I am interested if you could get it lower then 60 degrees, although celler temps are a good starting point I would want to ferment and what not.

Great DIY project!

looneybomber said:

This may just be a crazy idea, but if you need to heat and cool, what about using large peltiers? The heat sink would be the hardest part since it would have to go through your wall and be well insulated. But it will heat or cool with the flip of of a switch.

http://www.virtualvillage.com/400w-12v-thermoelectric-cooler-peltier-plate-001540-017.html

Click to expand...

I use pelters in my fermentation fridge, and I can get about a 30 degree temperature differential between inside and out. That won't be enough in Texas summers, and in a space that big you'd need dozens of them. Also, they're quite inefficient on the electricity front.

It's almost getting that time where a ferm chamber is needed in Texas. So I think that I'll start my freezer build soon, but something like this would be awesome! I wouldnt mind trying this DIY project. I am curious about the electricity usage. Keep us posted.

That is awesome. Can't wait to hear how this works when the real Texas weather shows its true colors in a few weeks.

Thanks guys. I think I have figured out my door insulation problem. the foam spray to fill the hollow spots risks damaging the door. Gluing some foam board on the back of the door is fu$king ugly.......

So.......As I was opening a bottle of wine tonight it hit me. I will glue used corks on the inside of the door. It might take a while but from the research I have done the R value is comparable to the foam boards. It will be cosmetically appropriate for a wine cellar/beer fermentor and functional. hell I'll be recyling too.

captainL said:

Thanks guys. I think I have figured out my door insulation problem. the foam spray to fill the hollow spots risks damaging the door. Gluing some foam board on the back of the door is fu$king ugly.......

So.......As I was opening a bottle of wine tonight it hit me. I will glue used corks on the inside of the door. It might take a while but from the research I have done the R value is comparable to the foam boards. It will be cosmetically appropriate for a wine cellar/beer fermentor and functional. hell I'll be recyling too.

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Wouldn't it take a serious drinking.problem to finish that door? Lol still a cool idea.

tom_gamer said:

Wouldn't it take a serious drinking.problem to finish that door? Lol still a cool idea.

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Not it you use a can!

Insulating the garage door with foam will drop the garage temps by about 15 deg...
If you add a foam layed to the inside of the fermentation chamber room, you won't see
the foam... Need to cut it appropriately so the door opens and yet closes with the foam
close to the edge of the doorway.

tom_gamer said:

Wouldn't it take a serious drinking.problem to finish that door? Lol still a cool idea.

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haa. Thats what friends are for. If you live on the north side of town (woodlands, spring, conroe) could you start collecting corks for me. Seriously, I'll take what I can get.

captainL said:

haa. Thats what friends are for. If you live on the north side of town (woodlands, spring, conroe) could you start collecting corks for me. Seriously, I'll take what I can get.

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I would, but one problem...I only drink beer. If I do make my own wine, then I end up bottling in beer bottles.

If worst comes to worst, you can buy new corks from LHBS.

Interior pics. Hooked up and turned it all on today. Moved some of the wine in there but I need some room to build some wine shelves. Brewing an American Amber tomorrow. Can't wait.

What is your floor? Just the garage floor? Sorry I can't tell on my phone.

How is it all going these days? any recommendations for someone making one?

Nice build captainL!! I built an almost identical unit in my garage in central FL and vented the window a/c unit into the garage like yours and found there is plenty of air exchange around/through the garage door so excess a/c heat was never an issue. And insulated with fiberglass only and thought it was fine/very effective. You're super insulated I see with foam board inside too. And I used that foam strip that has adhesive on one side to insulate/seal the door frame with and that worked real well. And if you want an even better heating element, you might consider installing an HPS light fixture, they put out alot of heat along with alot of lumens though, so if you did use one, would probably want to put some kind of cover over your wine rack since bright light is not so good for the wine.

I hope the door is at least solid core or an entry door

Mine wasn't solid core, just a cheap hollow core with no insulation inside door surface, it worked quite well and he probably has foam board insulation on it inside or if not could do that.

hollow core door with a sheet of foam board on top. I will be gluing corks to the face of that for more insulation soon.

As far as this summer and electric use goes......Well it does run a lot. Two situations:
1. Hooked up to STC 1000 temp controller, 2 degree differencial. It comes on every 5 to 10 minutes but only runs for about 1 to 2 minutes
2. Plugged into wall directly. It comes on every 3 to 5 minutes but only runs for 30 seconds or so.

So far its running strong but I'm concerned about the cycles on the compressor.

I don't have a kilowatt but I need one. Our electric bill hasn't been too excessive. This is our first summer here and so far the highest bill has been $235. 2500 sq ft house, two old AC units from 1995, 100 degree + days.

I have succesfully fermented in their with US 05 and nottingham. Monitoring the beer temps have gone to 68 degrees from 63 ambient. However I use my kegerator to ferment colder when needed. I have a Kolsch in their now. yum.

I love the storage area to keep all my crap in. Only problem is it sends a vibration in the walls that can be slightly heard in our master bedroom.

captainL said:

This is our first summer here and so far the highest bill has been $235. 2500 sq ft house, two old AC units from 1995, 100 degree + days.

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Wait for August...

Very nice pictures, by the way! I wish I had space in my garage for such a closet!

This is such a cool idea. Is the roof insulated as well? Any condensation issues?