ning
Elite Member
I'd love to have a root cellar and have the desire and possibility the capability to dig & build one
but my concern is that I don't think that the ground here (norcal, 2000' elevation in the hills, fairly hot - often 90-95 15-25% humidity but rarely 100+ desert hot in the summer, kinda freezes but not a lot in the winter) stays particularly cool
It may be cool enough from midwinter on, but that doesn't help in the fall at harvest time when the top few feet of the ground are literally warm.
According to this graph for my approximate location things look good on the average from about Nov 1- Mar 15 (though not last year!), though a root cellar probably wouldn't be entirely at the "deep" level and instead would average a good amount higher due to part being deep and part being near-top plus a door etc (unless you go crazy nuclear fallout shelter with depth & airlock lol).
Overall I'm not confident that digging a traditional root cellar by itself would be worthwhile, though one could probably make it decent with insulation and active cooling during the the fall (though this makes it less enticing and definitely less "traditional").
so
Q) would a root cellar actually be 40-50°F more than a month or two if even that? I doubt it, but others may educate me, but remember this isn't Michigan or Canada
An alternative is, we have a "storage room" ~10x10 in the downstairs, probably the only part of the house that I'd consider a basement. It has three concrete walls - one to the under-the-garage direction, and one to the uphill, and a concrete slab floor = it's not going to be getting much warmth in half of the six sides. As it is, when the upstairs (main part of house, ceiling direction) is ~75-85° (actively AC'd on hot days, fresh airflow on less hot days) and the downstairs (other two walls) is 70-75° (not actively AC'd, but stays cool in general and also gets passive AC from cold air falling down the stairs from the upstairs AC) that room is usually mid-60s°. Still not nearly cool enough as-is for holding apples a while.
I'm thinking it may not take a ton to make this into a "reasonably cool" room, with closed cell insulation on the walls and ceiling, and a very small minisplit to keep it cool (and remove any remaining economical incentive to have a cool room). This would likely be cheaper and way easier than digging a root cellar + insulation + active cooling in the fall, together with being much more convenient as we already use it as a pantry/wine cellar/backpacking storage/oh just put it in there room...
but my concern is that I don't think that the ground here (norcal, 2000' elevation in the hills, fairly hot - often 90-95 15-25% humidity but rarely 100+ desert hot in the summer, kinda freezes but not a lot in the winter) stays particularly cool
It may be cool enough from midwinter on, but that doesn't help in the fall at harvest time when the top few feet of the ground are literally warm.
According to this graph for my approximate location things look good on the average from about Nov 1- Mar 15 (though not last year!), though a root cellar probably wouldn't be entirely at the "deep" level and instead would average a good amount higher due to part being deep and part being near-top plus a door etc (unless you go crazy nuclear fallout shelter with depth & airlock lol).
Overall I'm not confident that digging a traditional root cellar by itself would be worthwhile, though one could probably make it decent with insulation and active cooling during the the fall (though this makes it less enticing and definitely less "traditional").
so
Q) would a root cellar actually be 40-50°F more than a month or two if even that? I doubt it, but others may educate me, but remember this isn't Michigan or Canada
An alternative is, we have a "storage room" ~10x10 in the downstairs, probably the only part of the house that I'd consider a basement. It has three concrete walls - one to the under-the-garage direction, and one to the uphill, and a concrete slab floor = it's not going to be getting much warmth in half of the six sides. As it is, when the upstairs (main part of house, ceiling direction) is ~75-85° (actively AC'd on hot days, fresh airflow on less hot days) and the downstairs (other two walls) is 70-75° (not actively AC'd, but stays cool in general and also gets passive AC from cold air falling down the stairs from the upstairs AC) that room is usually mid-60s°. Still not nearly cool enough as-is for holding apples a while.
I'm thinking it may not take a ton to make this into a "reasonably cool" room, with closed cell insulation on the walls and ceiling, and a very small minisplit to keep it cool (and remove any remaining economical incentive to have a cool room). This would likely be cheaper and way easier than digging a root cellar + insulation + active cooling in the fall, together with being much more convenient as we already use it as a pantry/wine cellar/backpacking storage/oh just put it in there room...
