Cold Room basement Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[MarkDuffy]

Hi
I have just joined this forum. I hope this is the best place to ask this question.

I live in London and have a basement. It has not been dugout etc but has been dry lined and I use one of the rooms as an office. The floor has been coated with floor paint and this seems to keep away the damp. I have electric vents on time switches. Not a hint of damp.

Under the front door is an old coal room I want to convert it to a cold store room. It has thick brick walls. It is also dry lined at the moment. I would envisage rendering it with concrete and rebuilding the door end (which is wooden at the moment) with bricks and rendering.

What I do not know about is
Do I need air movement?
Will there be condensation?[/list]
What kind of unit could I get to cool the room down. (I would like to have some cured meats lasting a few months 6.)

Any advice would be great. My list is not intended to be complete. I am just starting this research.
Thanks
Mark

[jaamiller]

I am also a relative newbie here, and not a professional builder.

I have been looking into a similar project, and I have been thinking of a passive ventillation system as is used in the spiral cellars (designed for wine). They use two 50mm pipes, one venting at the top of the room, and one at the bottom to facilitate air flow. They recommend venting onto a north-facing aspect.
If your room is larger then you may need larger diameter pipes to provide the air flow.
They suggest that you can achieve a constant temp of ~16 C in one of their cellars, though I have no idea whether this is true.

We have stored parma hams for two years by leaving them in a cool pantry, and they are still edible (and delicious). You don't necessarily need to keep them cold (insert all the usual disclaimers about your own risk etc ).

If you wanted to chill the room, you would presumably need to vent the chiller unit anyway.

...hope that gives you some ideas.

Jonathan