Except in the rare situation where your home wine cellar is situated in the basement which is completely underground and with excellent insulation, installing a wine cellar cooling unit is almost always imperative.
Wine cellar cooling units are necessary to maintain proper humidity level and temperature for your wine collection. There are basically two types of wine cellar cooling units: units that vent to the outside, and the units that vent to the inside. Wine cellar cooling units that vent to the outside require duck work to exhaust the heat from the wine cellar to the outside area, and that usually call for professional installation. For big home wine cellars, this is necessary.
However, if your home wine cellar is only a part of your basement which is a much larger room on itself, a massive wine cellar cooling unit is not necessary. If your wine cellar is a small room that occupies one part or corner of your basement area, you can install a wine cellar cooling unit that vents from the cellar into the larger room (the rest of your basement) where the heat will be properly dispersed.
When choosing a wine cellar cooling unit, don’t over do it but be aware of any specific in your wine cellar design. For example, if your wine cellar has a window or a glass door, you will need to purchase a cooling unit with bigger BTU output that you would otherwise need to, to compensate for the loss that comes from that window or glass door.
If you don’t go in and out of your wine cellar frequently, the wine cellar cooling unit will work only for about 5-10 minutes an hour, if that. When you install your cooling unit, it will probably take a few hours of constant operation in order to bring the temperature down to the optimal level. Once your wine cellar is cooled down, cooling unit will have no trouble maintaining the optimal temperature without working continuously. 
If you want me to give you more guidelines on how to choose the best wine cellar cooling unit click here.
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