32 deg. cellar/ambient temp. difference

I am pretty happy with my passive basement cellar right now running at 67 deg. F and the outside temp. presently is 99 deg. F. I only lost power for 2 days this big outage period and then those days were separated by a day with power. How is everyone else doing with their cellars?

I am pretty happy with my passive basement cellar right now running at 67 deg. F and the outside temp. presently is 99 deg. F. I only lost power for 2 days this big outage period and then those days were separated by a day with power. How is everyone else doing with their cellars?

Pretty much the same here, Jim. Daytime highs have been over 100° the past few days and the excursion thermometer in my passively cooled (below grade) cellar tells me that 61° has been my high down there.

Mark Lipton

Well, I don't live Back East Where It Gets HOT, so my experience is mild. And, here in Santa Rosa where I live, there are fields of wine grapes within a mile or two in pretty nearly all directions.
Yet, I have a 10+ year old Vinotemp cellar tucked away in the detached garage. It gets cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer, and I have the thermostat set to try to hit somewhere around 58 F. It sometimes gets down below 55 in the winter (but remember, we only get a few mornings below 32), and the highest it's been so far this year has been about 59. Of course, we have only had warm days so far - the top was about 90 a month or so ago, and though it was warm today, I don't think it hit 90. Last summer, the 4th of July weekend hit 100, and the cellar got up to 62. But I was having a family party and kept opening the door!

It's nice to live where you don't expect more than a couple of days in a row with highs above 90 or below 45.

John

Hi Jim,

My newly constructed passive cellar is also running 67 F after the heat of last week. I am happy with that since it used to run a degree or two above 70 F in the heat before I insulated it and put in permanent racking. So, the insulation appears to have dropped the temperature about 5 F. As long as it does not get above 70 F, I am happy with its performance.

Today was the 11th day in a row that the high was over 95. I have a totally passive cellar however there are three ducts in the basement so the house A/C does get into the basement if not the cellar. Topped out at 67 at about 5 feet off the ground by the door. The exterior walls and closer to the floor are a few degres cooler. The cellar is in a nort-east corner and roughly 80% below grade.

I am pretty happy with my passive basement cellar right now running at 67 deg. F and the outside temp. presently is 99 deg. F. I only lost power for 2 days this big outage period and then those days were separated by a day with power. How is everyone else doing with their cellars?

Your cellar sounds like a twin of mine, Jim. As the mid-Atlantic has been suffering through temps as high as 105 for two weeks, the passive cellar in the basement is right around 65. I never stop worrying, however, as the cellar is near a large section of cement porch that is exposed to the sun and with temps in the 90s at night, it acts like a heat sink and must radiate down to the cellar to some extent. I am relieved today, though, after a night of remarkable lightning and thunder that yielded 5 inches of rain and cooler temps.
I've learned from the folks on this forum that a slow rise to slightly warmer temps in the cellar may cause some wins to age faster but certainly will not cook them, but I still watch the thermometer.