Cellar/Cold Room Air Con Advice

[SiHoltye]

Hi all,

I'm serious about turning a well insulated shed of 20 cubic metres into a cask ale store. Hoping to be able to maintain about 5°C maybe? Can anyone point to a company who might supply the equipment to do this. All help appreciated.

[mojonojo]

What you are looking for is called a commercial cold room - might be cheaper to just buy one second hand on ebay and retrofit.

[SiHoltye]

What do pub cellars have? It's that sort of set up I have in mind. Perhaps 5°C is over optimistic, it's for casked beer to sit so what do you recommend?

[SiHoltye]

I can find installed brand new packages for 2k+VAT
EG [URL] http://cellarcooling.co.uk/mobile/prices.php[ /URL]
I was hoping there may be another way?

[mojonojo]

You could build a room out of 2x4 stud, and basically build a giant fridge powered with an AC unit but you will pay in electricity costs tho.

£500 second hand - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cool-room-/20 ... 2ed5e39150
£450 - http://www.a1usedcateringequipment.co.uk/?p=3312

[SiHoltye]

OK, rather than 'another way' I'm saying I want a cheap second hand air con system. Anybody know a source besides trawling eBay?

[Collingwood]

It is possible to run a coolroom off a standard wall-mounted air con unit, and at substantial energy savings over commercial coolroom solutions.

Check out Coolbot (http://www.storeitcold.com/coolerconstruction.html ) to get some ideas.

This is a proprietary temp controller that prevents the air-con unit from icing up during operation. But you can still do it with any temp controller if you know how and are prepared to experiment.

The above web site is worth reading for the 'FAQ' and 'How it Works' sections; and the 'Resources' section has a good discussion on how to build a well insulated coolroom from easy to obtain materials.

(no affiliation, just like their cheapo approach to an otherwise expensive project)

[orlando]

asd has done something like this using a Maxi, pm him.

[asd]

asd has done something like this using a Maxi, pm him.

I did indeed! I mentioned it in another thread:

"I have a cold room in my brewery. The chiller broke. I was quoted £1500 to have a new unit. I wasn't willing to pay. I had a spare Cornelius 1000 unit (off ebay - £100). I took the cold flow from the water bath pump and passed it through a fan driven heat dump - making a cold dump. I put the Cornelius outside the cold room, passed the hoses through the wall, and put the "cold dump" inside. I can get the room down to around 4 degrees Centigrade. It chills around 50 casks no problem. The heat/cold dump units are about £200 new.

Alternatively, and I know another brewery has done this, obtain a split air conditioning unit, and use this to chill your area. There are lots available on Fleabay, etc. at sort of reasonable prices."



It was a big Cornelius Classic though - but then the room is big. It was because I had one spare, and it was the cheapest way of doing it. If I were doing it from scratch, I would probably get hold of an old A/C unit, though.

Basically, with the Cornelius chiller, I took the cold water flow from the python pump and passed it through a heat dump unit, making it into a cold dump, which I sited in the cold room, blowing cold air, with the Classic sitting outside.

It will get the room down to 4C, but I keep it at about 8-9C.

[daddies-beer-factory]

you could get a portable air con unit - on wheels inside the room and a 4" hose that you poke outside. I have an alaskan one i use upstairs during very hot weather http://www.aircon247.com/p/4280186/kool ... unit-.html

recommended cellar temp is 12 - 14 celcius, i think this only goes down to 16, but would be one way of getting it pretty cold.

it costs about 25 - 30pence per hour though when the compressor is running and is a little noisy.