Cellar cooling · racking · build
Most home cellars fail for one reason: the cooling unit was sized on a guess. This site starts with the physics — heat gain, insulation, humidity — then covers racking, cost and the awkward rooms people actually have.
Self-contained, ducted or split? What each one costs to run, how loud it is, and where the waste heat has to go.
Read the guide → ToolEnter your room dimensions and insulation, get the real heat load and a unit size that won't run itself to death.
Open the calculator → BudgetReal numbers by tier, from a converted closet to a finished room with a split system and custom racking.
See the costs → FurnitureDiamond bins, display rows, double-deep storage. How many bottles fit, and which layout you'll still like in five years.
Plan the racking → ScienceWhy 55°F and 70% relative humidity, what happens at 65°F, and how to stop corks drying out.
Understand the numbers → Small spacesThe 40-bottle builds. Where the compromises are real and where they cost you nothing.
See small builds →A cooling unit is rated at a fixed set of conditions: 55°F inside, 90°F outside. Put it in a garage that hits 105°F in August and it loses roughly a tenth of its capacity for every 10°F above that rating — so a unit that looked generous in the catalogue runs continuously, ices up, and dies in three summers.
The fix is arithmetic, not money. Work out the actual heat gain from walls, ceiling, glass and internal loads, add a safety margin, then derate for the real ambient temperature. Ten minutes with the calculator saves a $2,000 mistake.
An independent site, not a retailer catalogue. The guides exist because the information people need — sizing, insulation values, where the condensate goes — is scattered across forums and buried in product listings. Where a number depends on your situation, we show the method rather than inventing a figure.
One page: heat gain by room, the derating maths, and the unit size that actually holds 55°F. No newsletter spam.