You can duplicate our concept in a room, your garage, an outbuilding, your cellar .. all you need is a space 10' x 6' x 7' high.

We have a gardening shed attached to our garage and that's what we used.

Here you are looking into the cellar from inside the shed. The wine you see is along the back wall of the shed.

Here are the steps that we took to build the cellar.

• The very first thing we did was determine how much we could spend on the cooling unit. This determined how big we would make the cellar.
  
  
• Once we knew how big we could make the cellar, we then determined what kind of racking to use. We chose the wire racking since, in our minds, it was the cheapest cost per bottle and also it provided the densest racking.
  
  
• We then built a stud wall of 2x6's across the shed and framed in for a door.
  
  
• Since the floor of the shed was not insulated and we couldn't get under it, we used 2x4's and built up the floor area of the cellar to allow for insulation there.
  
  
• We then used 2x2's to fir out the existing 2x4 studs used in the walls of the shed. This allowed us to use 6" insulation in the walls. 10" of insulation was placed in the ceiling
  
  
• Since the end walls would not have racking we framed in an opening for our Breezair so that it would extend out the back wall of the shed. We then used flashing out side to protect the back end of the unit. Since this shed was exposed to the outside temperatures, we knew we would have add some heat. The solution (again cheap) was one of those ceramic space heaters from Kmart. We tied all of this together with a thermostat from WW Grainger.
  
  We've had several emails about how to hook up the heater and the Breezair to the thermostat. We got the thermostat from WWW Grainger .. it is a Dayton but we're not sure of the model. You need to specify one that has two sets of contacts .. one for heating and one for cooling. We then wired up the thermostat like this . Once everything is attached ... turn the Breezaire (or other cooler ) setting to maximum cooling ( this is because the external thermostat will now be in control ) ... likewise turn the the heater to maximum heat ( note: during the summer we turn off the heater just to be safe ).
  
  To monitor temperature we just use a (cheap) Radio Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer. We put the outdoor sensor into a wine bottle filled with water. In this way we can monitor the min/max air temp and wine temp. The entire setup can be seen here. This setup keeps the cellar between 52 and 57 degrees all year round.
  
  
• We covered the floor, walls and ceiling with 6mil clear plastic and then the cheapest 1/2" exterior plywood we could find. All joints were then sealed with canned foam and/or caulking.
  
  
• We used an insulated steel door and put weatherstripping around all 4 sides of the door opening. It is hard to open and close but there is no air leakage.
  
  
• For lighting we used one (cheap) utility flourescent lighting fixture
  
  
• For racking, we went with the double deep wire racking. This was the cheapest ( do you see a theme here )? We built up a platform to stand the racking on because at 6'3", Art didn't want to get down on his hands and knees to retrieve the lower bottles. it also gives us case storage under the racking. One note, you do have room for bottles on the top of the racking but if you have a lot of the large Burgundy or Champagne bottles, you might want to augment this racking with some that have larger holes. This is what one, double deep row looks like ( the pint jars on the floor are good old, homemade,Carolina Moonshine).
  
  
• We mounted thin strips of wood vertically along the racking and then we used stick on Letters to go from A to Q. Along the bottom of the racking we put numbers. This way, we can identify any location very fast .. ie A32, B2,R14, etc.
  
  
• To monitor our wine, we use ( what we humbly feel is the best) cellar software on our PC ... Cellar! Software for Wine Enthusiasts

To sum things up .. it's ugly, it's cheap and it will hold 1,800 bottles !!

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