Forced-Air and Cold-Wall Cooling Systems for Wines

Do you know that your wine collection could also be stored in a wine cabinet, aside from wine cooler refrigerators?

A Wine Cabinet is not a Wine Fridge, but it is similar to a mini bar that is climate-controlled. It is designed not only to replicate the conditions found in the best natural underground wine cellars, without the excavation costs, but it is also designed to blend in with other formal furniture.

It can be made of either durable melamine laminates or hand-crafted wooden exteriors, Adjustable Humidity Control, High Performance Air Filtration System, Top or Rear-Vent Exhaust, Electronic Thermostat, and Foil-backed polyisocyanurate insulation. It can also be made of either forced air or cold wall cooling systems. By controlling humidity, temperature, UV light and ventilation and limiting damaging vibrations as well, you are ensuring, thereby, the maintenance of your wine's quality as well as ensuring your wines mature under optimal conditions and are always served intact.

Two Types of Compressor-Based Cooling Systems Used in Wine Cabinets and Cellars

Forced-air Cooling Systems

By far the most common type of cooling system, the Forced-air cooling systems are typically self-enclosed units mounted at the top of the wine cabinet or cellar. They make use of powerful fans to blow air across cold surfaces, called evaporator coils, and into the wine cooler cabinet. These units are easy to remove, repair and/or replace because they are entirely self-enclosed. One more advantage is these units give more even temperatures and less stratification inside the wine cabinet or cellar.

But, these systems are said to be slightly louder than cold-wall cooling systems when the fans are “on”. Unfortunately, the fans are necessary in creating and maintaining even temperatures throughout the cabinet or cellar.

Cold-wall Cooling Systems

On the other hand, these systems are typically fully-integrated into the construction of the wine cabinets, having compressors placed at the bottom of the cabinet, and evaporator coils running up and down the rear of the cabinet.

However, cold-wall systems sometimes tend to have a difficulty in maintaining even temperatures throughout the cabinet. It also tends to strip too much moisture and humidity from the air inside the cabinet. Also, another disadvantage, cold-wall systems is difficult to replace and expensive to repair as they are integrated into the walls of the wine cabinet.

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Guide to a Proper Wine Cellar Lighting

The lighting option of your wine cellar,  aside from humidity, vibration and temperature, is one of the most important that will determine the quality of your cellar condition as well as your wine collection, either hindering or helping achieve your desired result.

Not only does your wine’s ability to age well, bringing out its best bouquet or aromas, characteristics, flavors, and balance, depend on your management techniques of these factors, but also does your wine’s value, visual appeal and the marketability.

Improper lighting is known to have an adverse effect on the room temperature and consequently on the wine's quality and aging process, promoting premature aging of wine. It can also ruin wine labels as well as detract from the presentation of the wine bottles and the aesthetic of ornamental wine racks.

It is necessary to have a good light in order to stack and organize the wines properly, select the bottles you need, read labels properly and find your way through the wine storage. For commercial purposes, a proper lighting system will enable you to optimally showcase your wine collection to your prospective customers, enhancing the wines’ visual appeal and the marketability of your product.

That’s why the selection of wine cellar lighting must be done with utmost care. So, here are some tips on how you can manage wine cellar lighting well and avoid spoiling/destroying the quality of your wine collection.

To be functional and effective, make sure that your cellar lighting only emits as little heat as possible, while still adequately lighting the space. You can do this by making use of incandescent bulbs or other products which have UV protective coating as they produce less UV lights over fluorescent lights and prevent harmful UV damage to your wine.

You could also use a recessed halogen lighting system with a frosted, tempered glass lens. This can add a dramatic flair to your wine cellar. Use a system with a 12V/20W bulb and a polished aluminum reflector.

Also another ideal wine cellar light is the phantom linear strips. This type of lights can be mounted in many different positions that produce both direct and indirect cove lighting effects such as on the rear interior of the doorway of the wine cellar. From the concealed strips, light then shines back into the room, creating a luminance that appears to grow out of the corridor and intensify as it reaches the bottles. Also, this type of light can function as the main light source in smaller wine cellars and in bigger cellars can be used to make ambient wine cellar lighting that adds an essential element to romance, mystique, and relaxation.

Overall, you must pay close attention to the lighting of your cellar or even your wine fridges. Too much light can actually cause heat, which can stimulate your wine's stable organic compounds thus damaging your wine.


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Taking Care of Your Wines and Your Cellar

In collecting wine, no matter what your motive is, either for pleasure or profit, the crucial aspect to consider is the storage of your wine anthology.

Whether your collection includes the world's most expensive wine for 2012, Penfolds’ 2004 Block 42 housed in 750-ml glass ampoules and priced at $168,000, or just wines from your favorite wine club, your wine collection needs to be protected not only to preserve your investment, no matter what the value, but also to ensure quality.

In wine collecting, you should strive to maintain a balance between building or having the most ideal wine storage such as wine fridge and maintaining not only your collection but also your wine cellar at best condition by taking care of them both every so often.

Not only will the wine diminish in quality or will not last at all, if not cared for, but so will your wine cooler or cellar. Even the most stately and durable wine cellars cannot ward off the termites, scorpions, ants, and other pests that tend to infest cellars if conditions that allow them to thrive exist.

So here are some pointers or good ways on how you can take good care of your wines and wine cellar. 

• Maintain proper cellar lighting. Your collection's exposure to light should be limited. It is best to store wine in a dark room. Do not use fluorescent light as this can be harmful. You can use incandescent bulbs which may be a bit safer than fluorescent bulbs, as they only emit very small amounts of ultraviolet light.

• Keep a stable environment for your wines. Vibration is harmful to wine, as it could possibly disturb the sediment in older wines and keep them from settling, potentially making them unpleasantly gritty. Also, keep the bottles in a horizontal position.

• Have a backup power supply. A sustained power outage could put your wine collection at risk. To protect your investment, try to have a permanent back-up generator.

• Don't let moisture in your cellar. This holds true especially for a wine cellar that is constructed mostly out of wood materials. This is because the cellulose content in the wood in your wine cellar is the food of termites and other pests. And combined with moisture, this will now create the perfect environment for these termites and other similar pests to thrive.

• Clean the wine cooling unit as well as the humidifier often. Check and clean your wine cooling units from time to time to ensure that they are in proper working condition. Also make sure that the unit is free from moisture as moisture can lead to the eventual rusting of your unit as well as be another major source of a termite attack. Also, ensure that your humidifiers should be cleaned out thoroughly and remove the dirt and other foreign elements before replacing them with clean water every day or every other day.

• Insure wine collection if available. Make sure to consider insuring your collection separately as wine collections increase in value. 

Relax at Home, an online shopping site of wine storage products is your great find if you are looking for wine fridges or coolers for your cellar. Join us on our Official Facebook Page or Follow Us On Twitter for more updates regarding wine storage.

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Coping With Fibromyalgia through Massage Chairs

Are you suffering from muscle tension and stiffness?

This may be because of either polymyalgia, which is the cause of pain in your joints and muscles areas or fibromyalgia, which can cause stiffness in the ligaments and tendons.

But in the cause of Fibromyalgia, this is a far more painful condition which can cause fatigue and brittle tendons and ligaments in many different parts the body and with a tendency to become severe due to their size. Fibromyalgia can also have symptoms of spasms and a burning sensation.

Whichever may be the cause, both of these can cause muscle tension and stiffness and have massage chairs as the treatment of choice by a variety of chiropractic doctors.

The muscle tension and stiffness in fibromyalgia can be treated by a massage chair with its function of being able to stretch muscles and restore muscle flexibility. Massage chairs like those massage chair in Sydney can provide these types of therapeutic benefits, thereby helping those with fibromyalgia conditions with relief from pain and discomfort.

As one suffers from fibromyalgia, it is critical that you be able to restore flexibility to your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments.

However, while attempting to stretch stiff muscles, it is expected that you will feel initial pain and discomfort in the aim to achieve the return of flexibility in these areas.

The basics in the fibromyalgia massage therapy treatment involve building up a routine that is sustainable. More importantly, it aims at restoring your muscle’s flexibility step by step. With a massage chair, being always available irrespective of circumstances, it can hence be very beneficial to the recovery process.

Likewise, these chairs can also be used as soon as the symptoms flare up, providing you a massage therapy to that specific location or others where needed.

Take note, before you start any new routines, you are advised to consult a health care professional, who can provide you with information such as diet, exercise, stretching, and massage chair therapy.

Also, when doing your routine, you must first do light stretching. This will assist the major muscles which are stiff as well as build endurance and strength. Once you are done performing light exercises, you can now let the massage chair therapy rejuvenate your muscles and joints along with giving you an overall feeling of relaxation and relief.

To know more information about massage chairs as well as its benefits to your health, visit Relax at Home official website. You can also like our Official Facebook Page and Follow us on Twitter for more.

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