UNCORRECTED PROOF ARTICLE IN PRESS Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Building and Environment ( ) – www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv 1 Performance of a commercial wine store with insulated concrete walls R.J. Fuller * , M.B. Luther, C.K. Cheung 3 Built Environment Research Group, School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong 3217, Australia Received 30 January 2003; received in revised form 18 April 2003; accepted 3 November 2003 5 Abstract The internal environment within an unconditioned wine barrel store, constructed from insulated concrete panels and located in 7 south-eastern Australia, has been investigated during a summer and winter month. Average temperatures inside the store were found to be 13:7 ◦ C and 22:8 ◦ C in the winter and summer month respectively. A validated mathematical model of the store was used to investigate 9 the contribution of the concrete walls, insulation and the wine itself to the internal thermal environment. The concrete walls were found to be the least inuential. 11 ? 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Keywords: Insulated concrete panels; Wine store; Thermal mass 13 1. Introduction Commercial wine stores dier in some important design 15 and operational aspects from other commercial buildings. Firstly, like other food and beverage stores, they are de- 17 signed for the stored product, not for human beings, and so for example there is no need for windows. Likewise, there 19 is no requirement for a minimum air exchange rate as the building is often unoccupied. As in other stores for perish- 21 able (or at least spoilable) products, a stable temperature and humidity within certain ranges is the objective of the build- 23 ing designer, the acceptable temperature range depending on the wine variety. A further feature of a wine store is that, 25 when fully loaded, it is a structure with a very high thermal capacitance due to the large quantities of liquid within the 27 building. This paper evaluates the thermal performance of an un- 29 conditioned wine barrel store constructed from insulated concrete sandwich panels, using both direct measurement 31 and simulation. In the rst part of the paper, the measure- ments of the internal temperatures and relative humidity 33 during a summer and winter month in the year 2000 have enabled a comparison between the actual conditions in the 35 store with those desired by the owner. In the second part of the paper, these measurements are used to validate the 37 ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rifull@deakin.edu.au (R.J. Fuller). predictions from a simulation model of the store. This model 39 is then used to quantify the contribution of key building elements, namely the insulation, concrete and the wine itself 41 to the thermal conditions created in the store. 2. Background 43 Scotchman’s Hill Winery is situated on a peninsula and is approximately 20 km from the city of Geelong on the 45 southern coast of Victoria. The winery is located in a cool maritime climate that experiences extreme temperature uc- 47 tuations, not only from season to season but from day to day. The winery was established in 1982 and began pro- 49 ducing wines in 1984 from 300 acres of vines. The winery produces over 1000 tonnes of wine per annum, including 51 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Merlot, Cabinet Sauvignon, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. 53 At the Scotchman’s Hill winery, the optimum storage fa- cilities for the fermentation and maturation of their red and 55 white wines is considered to be between 15 ◦ C and 20 ◦ C. Humidity levels are also extremely important in the storing 57 and fermentation of wines and 70 –80% relative humidity is regarded as being the desired level. The winery experi- 59 enced problems with its original wine storage facility. The building had poor thermal qualities and was aected by ex- 61 ternal temperature and humidity uctuations, which in turn aected the wine fermentation and maturation process. As 63 0360-1323/$ - see front matter ? 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.11.002 BAE 865 pp: 1-9 (col.fig.: nil) PROD. TYPE: COM ED: Suma PAGN: Usha.N -- SCAN: Anand