Cooking For Engineers

[CookNewb]

I remember reading in a culinary article (from Wired.com maybe? Can;'t find it anymore) that high end restaurants use sometimes laboratory fridges that have digital displays so that you can control the temperature down to the degree. Usually they use them to store wines in.
Since there are many engineers here, does anyone have a suggestion as which is the biggest one I could possibly get if money were no object?
Thank you.

[Dilbert]

if you go a-goggling for 'environmental chambers' you'll find desktops to walk-ins.

digital temp control/display is pretty common place for mid-hi end residential refrigerators - altho they may not have the temp range needed for wines.

don't be fooled by 'digital' - it's not all too tricky to set a thermostat - digital or analog.

the tricky bit is actually maintaining the set point temperature _everywhere_ within the box, and secondarily the 'dead band' of the thermostat - ie how far off the set point does it go before it 'signals' for heating or cooling - and how the temp varies in various spots while that is happening. getting an extremely accurate thermostat with a very narrow band is not difficult - designing the heat/chill system that can react properly is difficult.

the digital display is nice to dazzle the customers but I really seriously doubt any wine needs and accuracy of plus or minus half degree storage.

[Guest]