Home-made wine cooler/storage

[silkwood]

I know wine cellars have been covered, but I was hoping someone could give me some information specific to my needs. I'm having a new place built and the pantry is a "sliding-door wardrobe" I'm going to set asise one section (500wx600dx2500h) as wine storage. I'll insulate the walls and door. As this area backs onto the garage I was wondering how hard it would be to install a cooling unit. Does anyone have any idea how I could go about it in an economical way (old fridge components, one of those lightweight portable fridges adapted etc.). As it is for fairly constant temperature and doesn't have to be too cold I won't be needing anything ultra powerful (I don't think!?)

Cheers,

[pharmaboy2]

silkwood, it depends on what your target temps are, a good place to look into this is the home brew forums - a lot of these guys use fridges set at 18 degrees for fermenting in - chest freezers, upright fridges etc.

Domestic fridges arent very useful because the exchanger pipes are inclusive within the unit (sides/rear etc) whereas commercial fridges have seperate bit which might help. Need to find a second hand fridge place that does commercial. I've always intended to use a small in wall aircon for cooling (plug in thermostat to switch on and off) with dishes of water to provide humidity. If aircon, you need to try and isolate the vibration for wine - ie seperate frame not connected - rubber seals etc.

My problem has been solved by relos getting rid of 400litre fridge only - put under house, and on a 40 degree day, I'll stick 2 freezer bricks in it - I can cope with doing that 5 or 6 times a year.