Commercial Wine Cellars
A commercial wine cellar has to perform every day, not just look right on day one.
Restaurants, hotels, wine bars and retail wine rooms put a cooling system under a different kind of pressure to a private residential cellar — near-continuous operation, frequent door access, and a stock value that depends on the system not failing.
Encool supplies THENOW Air split cooling systems for commercial wine cellars from around 15m³ up to 150m³, sized to run reliably under commercial duty cycles.
For hospitality operators, contractors and M&E consultants, the brief is not just temperature and humidity — it is reliability, service access and running cost over years of daily use.
Why a commercial cellar changes the brief
A commercial cellar usually needs to account for:
Near-continuous operation rather than occasional use
Frequent door opening from staff and guest access
A cooling load that includes people, lighting and adjoining kitchen or bar heat
Noise limits in front-of-house or guest-facing spaces
Stock value that justifies a proper service and maintenance plan
Site access for planned servicing without disrupting trading hours
Compliance and F-gas record-keeping for the installed system
These factors change the system selection and the installation detail, even where the room volume looks similar to a residential project.
Cooling systems for commercial cellars
Encool supplies THENOW Air split systems across a range suited to commercial cellars from smaller wine rooms through to large-format storage.
The VHSN-J30 suits smaller commercial spaces of approximately 15 to 30m³, such as a wine bar's back-bar cellar or a boutique retail room, with cooling capacity from 1.6kW to 2.5kW and noise as low as 40dBA — a relevant figure where the unit is close to a guest-facing area.
The HSN-J60 suits cellars up to 60m³, with cooling capacity of 3100W, heating of 6000W and a condenser that can be sited up to 18m away, keeping compressor noise out of trading areas entirely.
The HSN-J90 suits cellars up to 90m³, with cooling capacity of 5000W and heating of 9000W, typical of a larger restaurant or hotel cellar programme.
The HSN-J150 suits the largest commercial cellars, up to 150m³, with cooling capacity of 7600W and heating of 12000W, and steps up to a 380V/50Hz power supply — worth confirming against the site's existing commercial electrical infrastructure early in the project.
All THENOW Air split systems include built-in wet-film humidity control, supporting the stable conditions a commercial wine programme depends on for stock quality, not just guest presentation.
Planning for continuous operation
A commercial cellar runs harder than a residential one, and the planning should reflect that:
Condenser location that keeps noise and heat rejection away from guest and staff areas
Pipe run within the system's rated distance from indoor to outdoor unit
Electrical supply confirmed against the unit's requirements, including the 380V step-up on the HSN-J150
Condensate drainage and, where humidity control is used, a water supply to the unit
Service access that does not require disrupting service or guest areas
A planned maintenance schedule, given the value of stock at risk from a system failure
Service access is worth raising early on commercial projects specifically — a unit that is technically installed but difficult to reach for maintenance becomes a recurring operational problem.
Best suited to trade-led planning
Encool works with hospitality contractors, M&E consultants, refrigeration engineers and verified trade buyers on commercial cellar projects.
Installation must be carried out by a suitably qualified F-gas engineer, and commercial projects benefit from early coordination between the cellar design, kitchen or bar services, and the wider building's electrical and mechanical plan.
Early support helps avoid the issues that recur on commercial projects — a system undersized for continuous duty, a condenser location that puts noise where guests will notice it, or service access that was not planned into the build.
Speak with Encool
If you are specifying a commercial wine cellar, send us:
Room dimensions and total volume
Intended use — restaurant, hotel, wine bar or retail
Expected footfall and door access frequency
Proposed condenser location and pipe run
Available electrical supply
Target temperature and humidity
Service access constraints
We will help review the project and identify the right THENOW Air system for continuous commercial operation.
Speak to Encool about a commercial wine cellar cooling system