Car port side room - floor insulation
Discussion
We have a small room attached to a detached car port.
We plan on keeping a wine storage fridge in there, so are going to frame and insulate the room and run a small tube heater in there just to keep the temp above say 10 degrees over winter. The wine fridges dont like freezing weather to much...
ts a concrete floor.. we dont really have room to lay insulation and screed over it... whats a simple/ cheap solution that will help keep the heating requirements to a minimum?
We plan on keeping a wine storage fridge in there, so are going to frame and insulate the room and run a small tube heater in there just to keep the temp above say 10 degrees over winter. The wine fridges dont like freezing weather to much...
ts a concrete floor.. we dont really have room to lay insulation and screed over it... whats a simple/ cheap solution that will help keep the heating requirements to a minimum?
I've lived in houses with uninsulated concrete floors, just underlay and carpet.
It's not that bad.
You could also consider laminate over the thin foam underlay intended for the purpose.
Still air is not great at conducting heat downwards, so if you can eliminate draughts you may be OK.
Aiming for >10degC is much easier than lounge temp.
So long as there is a decent damp course and your floor is dry, I think the heat loss via the floor will be low compared to walls, ceiling and air changes.
You get to a point where a decent double glazed window is the dominant heat loss and beyond that you are chasing 'diminishing returns'.
My brother runs freezers in an outbuilding, with a half-serious attempt at insulation, a cheap heater on a frost stat only comes on a few hours a year and costs buttons.
It's not that bad.
You could also consider laminate over the thin foam underlay intended for the purpose.
Still air is not great at conducting heat downwards, so if you can eliminate draughts you may be OK.
Aiming for >10degC is much easier than lounge temp.
So long as there is a decent damp course and your floor is dry, I think the heat loss via the floor will be low compared to walls, ceiling and air changes.
You get to a point where a decent double glazed window is the dominant heat loss and beyond that you are chasing 'diminishing returns'.
My brother runs freezers in an outbuilding, with a half-serious attempt at insulation, a cheap heater on a frost stat only comes on a few hours a year and costs buttons.
That’s pretty similar to what I’ve done with a circa 6m2 plant room in a place that is currently vacant and unheated in order to stop the incoming water supply freezing.
50mm PIR insulation on the walls, 150 on the ceiling, 100mm in floor, and a 150w tube heater is doing the job.
Obviously 100mm in the floor/150mm in the ceiling would take a lot of space but just adding whatever you can fit, and possibly some ply on the floor to spread the weight, would be better than nothing.
If you’ve not already bought the fridge, Eurocave ones heat as well as cool. They work just fine in unheated spaces.
All that said, I also ran a basic non-heated wind storage fridge in an unheated garage for a few years. There is a lot of thermal mass in a wine fridge and even in the depths of winter it didn’t drop to temperatures that were overly concerning.
50mm PIR insulation on the walls, 150 on the ceiling, 100mm in floor, and a 150w tube heater is doing the job.
Obviously 100mm in the floor/150mm in the ceiling would take a lot of space but just adding whatever you can fit, and possibly some ply on the floor to spread the weight, would be better than nothing.
If you’ve not already bought the fridge, Eurocave ones heat as well as cool. They work just fine in unheated spaces.
All that said, I also ran a basic non-heated wind storage fridge in an unheated garage for a few years. There is a lot of thermal mass in a wine fridge and even in the depths of winter it didn’t drop to temperatures that were overly concerning.
LooneyTunes said:
That s pretty similar to what I ve done with a circa 6m2 plant room in a place that is currently vacant and unheated in order to stop the incoming water supply freezing.
50mm PIR insulation on the walls, 150 on the ceiling, 100mm in floor, and a 150w tube heater is doing the job.
Obviously 100mm in the floor/150mm in the ceiling would take a lot of space but just adding whatever you can fit, and possibly some ply on the floor to spread the weight, would be better than nothing.
If you ve not already bought the fridge, Eurocave ones heat as well as cool. They work just fine in unheated spaces.
All that said, I also ran a basic non-heated wind storage fridge in an unheated garage for a few years. There is a lot of thermal mass in a wine fridge and even in the depths of winter it didn t drop to temperatures that were overly concerning.
Already have a wine fridge, otherwise would have gone for a eurocave... 50mm PIR insulation on the walls, 150 on the ceiling, 100mm in floor, and a 150w tube heater is doing the job.
Obviously 100mm in the floor/150mm in the ceiling would take a lot of space but just adding whatever you can fit, and possibly some ply on the floor to spread the weight, would be better than nothing.
If you ve not already bought the fridge, Eurocave ones heat as well as cool. They work just fine in unheated spaces.
All that said, I also ran a basic non-heated wind storage fridge in an unheated garage for a few years. There is a lot of thermal mass in a wine fridge and even in the depths of winter it didn t drop to temperatures that were overly concerning.
The above is at my mums house... ive got a liebherr wine fridge in my uninsulated detached garage and over the last couple of weeks its been unhappy and beeping at me because its too cold. I'm sure it will be fine, but the wine in my mums fridge makes mine look like house plonk so worth making sure it's happy.
One of mine was a Liebherr. They’re a nice unit.
PIR is rigid, so there’s always the option of building a box around the fridge, with just enough space for a small heater. With less surface area, your thermal losses would be lower.
Slightly random, and possibly not entirely crazy thought: most wine fridges have removable air filters. If you’re lucky, removing it (or punching a hole through the filter) might give you a way to get a cable in to power a very small tube heater placed jnside the fridge.
You can get some really small ones with built in thermostats: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HETH203.html...
If you set it to just below your fridge’s target temperature then it wouldn’t be fighting against the cooling system. Obviously you’d want to check out the surface temp of the heater and probably wouldn’t want it touching other bottle
In a similar vein, a propagator or vivarium heat pad might also be options worth exploring?
PIR is rigid, so there’s always the option of building a box around the fridge, with just enough space for a small heater. With less surface area, your thermal losses would be lower.
Slightly random, and possibly not entirely crazy thought: most wine fridges have removable air filters. If you’re lucky, removing it (or punching a hole through the filter) might give you a way to get a cable in to power a very small tube heater placed jnside the fridge.
You can get some really small ones with built in thermostats: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HETH203.html...
If you set it to just below your fridge’s target temperature then it wouldn’t be fighting against the cooling system. Obviously you’d want to check out the surface temp of the heater and probably wouldn’t want it touching other bottle
In a similar vein, a propagator or vivarium heat pad might also be options worth exploring?
LooneyTunes said:
One of mine was a Liebherr. They re a nice unit.
PIR is rigid, so there s always the option of building a box around the fridge, with just enough space for a small heater. With less surface area, your thermal losses would be lower.
Slightly random, and possibly not entirely crazy thought: most wine fridges have removable air filters. If you re lucky, removing it (or punching a hole through the filter) might give you a way to get a cable in to power a very small tube heater placed jnside the fridge.
You can get some really small ones with built in thermostats: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HETH203.html...
If you set it to just below your fridge s target temperature then it wouldn t be fighting against the cooling system. Obviously you d want to check out the surface temp of the heater and probably wouldn t want it touching other bottle
In a similar vein, a propagator or vivarium heat pad might also be options worth exploring?
That’s a great idea, I’ve actually just got a vivarium heater for a dry curing fridge I am making. Will experiment with it. PIR is rigid, so there s always the option of building a box around the fridge, with just enough space for a small heater. With less surface area, your thermal losses would be lower.
Slightly random, and possibly not entirely crazy thought: most wine fridges have removable air filters. If you re lucky, removing it (or punching a hole through the filter) might give you a way to get a cable in to power a very small tube heater placed jnside the fridge.
You can get some really small ones with built in thermostats: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HETH203.html...
If you set it to just below your fridge s target temperature then it wouldn t be fighting against the cooling system. Obviously you d want to check out the surface temp of the heater and probably wouldn t want it touching other bottle
In a similar vein, a propagator or vivarium heat pad might also be options worth exploring?
Simpo Two said:
A heater for a fridge... I need to go away and think about that 
It's just for the depths of winter where the dry curing fridge needs to sit between 10-15C, and the outside temperature is well below that. I have a thermostat controller with the fridge/ heater plugged in to keep it in the range required for dry curing. Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff