Air-Cooled vs Water-Cooled Wine Room Construction – What to Choose?

How to select the right in-house wine room construction options? Well, it’s a legit question. Most wine lovers like you ask this when they think about building an in-house wine collection. There’re several air-conditioning systems for wine-cooling units. Each of these wine-cooling units depends on the refrigeration process to create cold air. Wine cooling units come with many things. They're refrigerant valves, compressors, controls, cooling coils, and air or water-cooled condenser coils. But what will be better for in-house wine cellars? Well, we’ll talk about that in the below article.

Condenser coils for wine cooling

But before we start the comparison, let’s discuss condenser coils and their importance in cooling wines. Well, they discard the heat that’s produced during refrigeration. Air-cooled condenser coils use air as their medium to absorb the heat. And the water-cooled ones use water as the medium to do so.

Air-cooled wine rooms:

If you want to build an in-house air-cooled wine cellar, you should invest in air-cooled condenser coils. And here’re some facts,

• Air-cooled wine storage comes with a max. and min. amount of allowable air intake temperature.
• The min. allowable temperature is 40^o F (5^o C) and the max. is 95^oF (35^o C).
• The temperature outside of the max. or min. ranges need specialised options such as high and low ambient kits.
• These cooling units can intake air from another part of the structure or outside where it’ll find the max/min temperature range.
• You should mount the unit in a place with no added heat to let it keep the warm air away.

Water-cooled wine rooms:

If you want your in-house wine storage water-cooled, you should install water-cooled condenser coils. And here’re some facts,

• Like air-cooled units, the water-cooled cellars also come with max. and min. water intake temperature ranges.
• The min. temperature is 45^o F (7^o C) and the max. one is 85^o F (30^o C).
• Water with temperatures out of this range will need specialised refrigeration controls.
• The water-cooled systems put the heat into moving water to keep it away from the unit.
• To do so, it uses water piping ductwork to move the heat away from the cellar.
• The water intake varies on the size and capacity of your cellar.
• In this way, it limits the water amount to consider the frequency of the cooling cycle.
• Thus, you must build this cellar somewhere where you can recycle the water, like lakes or pools.
• These units won’t need hot air venting, so you can mount them anywhere.

So, which one is the ideal?

Both air-cooled and water-cooled wine storage units are ideal for storing wines at home. A water-cooled cooling unit will be ideal if you want to save energy or want to mount it anywhere in your place. But you must ensure that you’ve got plenty of water (lake, pool, well, etc) nearby. While the air-cooled units don’t demand things like that. All it wants is a place with no added heat for keeping the warm air away. Hence, you must consider everything before choosing one.

Can’t understand what will be the best way to install an in-house wine room construction at your place? Well, contacting a professional wine cellar builder can help you with that. All you’ll have to do is ensure that you’ve hired the right person.