Cooling a Cold Storage Room

[Sir_niveda]

Hey guys,

So in the shed that I brew in there is a cold storage room, I didn't start checking the temps in there until early this spring when I was able to easily keep it at 65*F with an STC-1000 and the tiniest of space heaters.

Well the last couple weeks we had a heat wave of 100* days for almost a week, sending the temp up as high as 78* (at least the highest that I saw).

So now I need to figure out how to cool it in there. Anybody have any ideas as to the most economical way to do it (portable ac unit)? Do I have to worry about humidity and condensation (it does have a small vent through the ceiling and I live in a very dry area),
is a chest freezer just simply the easier way to go?

Thanks everyone!

PS sorry for the sideways pics, also all the clutter will be removed if it's operating as a fermentation chamber full time)

 

[day_trippr]

Cooling the entire volume of an uninsulated shed is going to cost way more than just picking up a large fridge (hopefully from Craig's List or some place similar for small money) capable of holding whatever number/size of fermentors you desire.

I'm not sure a chest freezer would be better than a large fridge. The former typically uses the cabinet skin to radiate heat, while the latter typically uses active cooling (condenser with fan). I expect the latter would handle extreme heat better than the former...

Cheers!

 

[user 224599]

Anywhere near Burlingame?
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/app/5604354704.html
Or Parkside?
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/app/5624008751.html
You seem to have an embarrassment of riches in the bay area! Certainly plenty of commercial refrigerators on CL:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/app/5626476671.html

 

[Sir_niveda]

Thanks for the responses!

Just to clarify, the cold storage room is inside the shed (the storage room used to be a canning storage room), and I know it's hard to tell from the sideways pictures, but the door to it is about a foot thick (definitely has insulation), all the other sides are about the same. This would be used for ale fermentation 65* for mainly safale us-05.

The electricity supplied to the shed is just one 20amp breaker, so I'm trying to limit my energy consumption to seasonally having to cool/heat the cold storage room, one fridge for lagering/cold crashing, and one keezer.

The goal is to have my cold side infrastructure able to handle as much as a 15 gallon batch, which will probably be done with multiple carboys and maybe one speidel fermentor, as most batches will be 10-15 gallons ale, a 10 gallon lager batch, or maybe a 5 gallon double or triple batch..

Oh, and I am currently located east of sacto, in the foothills, constantly scanning Craigslist for the other two fridges I may need.

 

[Maylar]

A portable AC unit would probably not get down to 65F and you'd need to cut a hole in the wall and supply a vent to the outside. A big fridge is a better idea.

 

[Sir_niveda]

Cool thanks guys for the input, I thought maybe the AC unit would work, but just wanted to ask before plunking the money on one.

Perhaps I'll do one of those mini fridge expansion box builds, I just don't see being able to fit three 6.5 carboys in a standard upright fridge.

 

[Chrisl77]

If one of the walls is an outside wall of the shed why not just cut a hole and put a window unit in it. Plenty of people make walk in coolers this way using a coolbot to control the temp.