On Jul 14, 12:36*am, "Dark Helmet" > wrote:
> Hello all. *5+ years ago I was an occasional poster and constant lurker on
> this NG, but 4 years in northern Ohio, the land of no wine drinkers, left my
> wine hobby/habit/obsession out in the cold. *I now live in the Fresno area
> and have been happily pursuing my passion again. *Being 1.5 hours from Paso
> Robles and 2-4 hours from many of the best California areas has been quite
> exhilarating. Paso Robles has been a real treat and a journey of discovery
> of some incredible wines I simply would have missed otherwise. *There is
> some truly incredible "stuff" coming out of this area, and prices tend to be
> lower as the name just isn't as marketable yet. *Lucky for me.
>
> This new area though, leaves me with a real issue. *Since I do not have a
> basement, as most CA houses do not, I now own a large Vinotemp, which fits
> nicely into a space in my dining room. *I think it was a 550 unit, and has
> around 300 bottles in it currently. *Bottles range from Bordeaux to Rhone to
> Down Under to CA mainly. *Two things worry me about this set-up:
>
> 1. *Power outages - The temperatures during the summer in Fresno hit around
> 100F daily. *I know with the wine mass in there, I have some time during an
> extended outage, but I'm not sure how long.
>
> 2. *Cooling Unit malfunction - This worries me the most. *If the cooling
> unit dies, I have no clue what to do. *The whole cooler sits about 6 inches
> from the wall, which leaves no room to service the unit and moving it would
> be impossible with 300+ bottles inside. *Not to mention I have no idea if
> anyone could service it or if I would just have to replace the cooling
> unit - but I fear that is not a short process.
>
> So, I'm looking for someone smarter than me out there who relies on a unit
> like I do - how are you prepared for the above situations? * is there a
> simple way to repair a cooling unit? *Do you keep a spare as backup? *I can
> see having a 3rd party wine storage facility on backup, but I cant see how
> to get the wine there in an emergency. *I have seriously thought about
> digging a cellar in my backyard, but it's not really feasible at the moment,
> and might be difficult anyways given the small-ish yard, housing covenants,
> and potential cost.
>
> Just looking for some general feedback.

If the room containing the cooled wine storage unit has doors that can
be closed and a window, I suggest that you buy a window AC unit large
enough to cool the room to about 74 F or less.Try to get a Window AC
with a case that mounts in the
window and allows the AC unit to slide into it from inside. Make a
cover for the inside of the case for when the AC is not in place and
leave it on most of the time. You will also need a generator large
enough to run the AC. Generators can be had that will run on household
natural gas, propane, gasoline or 2 or more of these. Generators can
be heavy, but there are cart mounts for them with wheels if you need
to move them from storage for use. There are through-the-wall
connections for cables from a generator, or you may just be able to
use a heavy duty extension cable suited for outdoors to run from the
generator to the AC through a slightly raised window, etc. Then if
there is a long electrical outage or if your wine storage unit fails,
just slide in the AC, roll out the generator if it is not mounted in a
fixed position, and plug in the electrical cable. Unless you have some
very old wines with very delicate corks, keeping the room below about
74 F likely will prevent any serious damage to your wine for a few
days while you are having the wine cooling unit repaired or replaced
or until the power comes back on.

If there is an objection to a room AC, there are split systems with
only a small evaporator unit near the ceiling of the room that is
connected by pipes to the main unit containing the compressor, which
can be nearly anywhere including the attic. Even if you can install
the units yourself, you likely will need to hire a refrigeration tech
to connect the pipes and charge the system. Of course this method
would cost more, depending on what you do yourself.

There are also portable ACs that have large air in and out tubes in a
fixture that you place in the window. However I doubt if most of these
would handle your often 100+ F temperatures to lower the room
temperature enough. However even a 80 F temperature for a short time
would be far better than 100 F.

I doubt if an underground cellar would be cool enough where you live.
You likely can find the underground temperature as a function of
depth and date for where you live using a Google search.