Automated ventilation of storeroom

Hi everyone,

Our house sits on an incline, resulting in a ground floor that is built into the earth on one side. We use that floor as a garage, workshop and are also currently building out a storeroom for fresh produce and shelf-stable food items.

The room is 5 x 2m and 3m high. One of the large walls is concrete, as is the floor, and is built towards the hill so it has a (watertight and insulated) connection to the earth.

The other walls are a wood construction, insulated with wood fibre. One of the short walls is an outside wall. The complete ground floor is unheated, there are no windows in this room and our living space is above (well insulated). Outside temperatures range from -15°C in winter to +40°C in Summer for extreme days but are mostly in the -10°C to +30°C range.

I will seal in the storeroom completely to make it resistant to rodents and insects, but I am cognizant of the fact that the room will need good ventilation. I would also like to be able to have the ventilation automatically take advantage of high daytime temperatures in summer and low nighttime temperatures in winter to stabilize the internal temperature.

Do you have any recommendation for a ventilation system that can accomplish that?

I would also like to be able to have the ventilation automatically take advantage of high daytime temperatures in summer and low nighttime temperatures in winter to stabilize the internal temperature.

How do you think a high external temperature will assist in evening out the temperature?
It would help if you listed the area where you are located, so we can see the weather variations, see if it is always cool at night.
Iy would help if you explained the building orientation as well.
Is 'wood insulation' any good.
Have you considered using a very solid wall that is exposed to the outside, even having a shade wall on it if it gets direct sun on it.
A variation of a Trombe wall may work for you in cooling it in summer.
From ; Trombe Wall
A Trombe wall is usually an 8–16 in. thick masonry wall coated with a dark, heat-absorbing material and covered by a single or double layer of glass, placed from about 3/4–6 in. away from the masonry wall.
Heat from the sun is stored in the air space between the glass and dark material and conducted slowly to the interior of the building through the masonry through the conduction and convection mechanisms.
The same wall can be used to cool, by shading the wall in the day and opening it up at night, when its cool,
Trombe wall cooling function.
From that site;
At night, air movement is induced by the warm air inside the Trombe wall air gap.
The air gap sucks the cool outdoor air into the interior space, replacing the warm indoor air through natural convection.
Therefore, the Trombe wall is used for increasing the air flow that enhances the cross ventilation for cooling.

I see a lot of threads talking about ventilation though not many explain how to do ventilation.

I wonder if a simple bathroom fan system or a power vent would work?

Here are some threads that might be interesting for you or others:

https://permies.com/t/223851/install-ventilation-pipes

https://permies.com/t/240073/Questions-ventilation-space-work

John C identifies a good point; we have little understanding based to what your ventilation needs are.  I suspect that is because you aren’t too sure either.  Maybe a good approach is to experiment a little with the space to see how much air you need to move to achieve your objectives.   That way you will have a better idea as to if you need a bathroom fan on a timer, a computer fan, or maybe a passive system.   I suspect a huge factor will be the humidity levels in your area. There us also the issue of how much fresh fruit and vegetables you are wanting to store.