For many people growing in Japan, smell is of the greatest concern. For people who are able to vent directly outside this can be dealt with by using ozone or other methods. But for those who want to make a grow closet where outside venting is not a possibility, a home built Charcoal filter is a great way to go.
This is perfect for the tall type of closets that can be found in many modern apartments in Japan, not the futon closets.
The first thing you will need to do is to remove any selfing that already exists in the closet, be careful not to damage it because you will have to put it back if you are planning on moving.
First measure your closet carefully. You will need to built a new self with a hole in the middle. The hole should be the right size for an inline fan to sit in it. You want to place the new self near the top of the closet, about a 30 cm from the top. Next built a smaller box (filter box), that will sit on top of this self at the front. It has to be able to fit snugly into the space, so take your measurements carefully. You want to make the front and back of the Filter box with some type of hard plastic screen material that can be found at just about any home-center. Anything that you can cut to size will do. Next you have to go to a pet store and buy a bunch of bags of activated charcoal, the kind they use in fish tanks. There are many brands, but the kind I use are shaped like pellets and are in individual bags. Also pick up some wadder or filter material. cover the inside front and back with the filter material and dump in your charcoal. I close my filter box at the top with screws.
At the bottom of the diagram you can see that I made a box that sits in the closet using wood that is quit wide. You can also see that the bottom and top are connected with long planks which a) help support the self and b) give something for the front cover to rest against. You will also notice that you do not need to make sides or backs for the closet.
You hang your air-cooled light from the self, connect it your inline fan with duct and your ready to rock. Of course the Filter box will need to be air tight for it to effectively filter the smell. This is accomplished using Children's Kami-nendo, like play-do, but made with paper. Fill in all the cracks using the kami-nendo till it's air-tight. Once every 6 months or so you will need to remove the filter box and replace the charcoal once it's used up.
To cover the garden up you can find large pieces of plastic for like 1,000 yen at the home-centers. they come in many colors. I double mine up with black on the outside and white on the inside for better reflection.
The negative air-pressure caused by the inline fan / filter box will make sure that almost no smell escapes the rest of the garden, so it doesn't have to be air-tight; in-fact you want the fresh air to be able to freely come into the box.
With this kind of setup, I've had smokers sit right in front of a closet garden and not even realize it. It works wonders.
Issues of concern:
1) The garden will run a few degrees hotter than the rest of the room, so the main room will have to be air-conditioned or heated to a few degrees lower than your target temp
2) Inline filters and other equipment can make noise. My fan lies on some kind of jelly like rubber that reduces vibrations. If you are doing a dwc type grow it might be a good idea to have a fish tank in the room to mask the noise caused by the bubbles.
Grow safe.
This is perfect for the tall type of closets that can be found in many modern apartments in Japan, not the futon closets.
The first thing you will need to do is to remove any selfing that already exists in the closet, be careful not to damage it because you will have to put it back if you are planning on moving.
First measure your closet carefully. You will need to built a new self with a hole in the middle. The hole should be the right size for an inline fan to sit in it. You want to place the new self near the top of the closet, about a 30 cm from the top. Next built a smaller box (filter box), that will sit on top of this self at the front. It has to be able to fit snugly into the space, so take your measurements carefully. You want to make the front and back of the Filter box with some type of hard plastic screen material that can be found at just about any home-center. Anything that you can cut to size will do. Next you have to go to a pet store and buy a bunch of bags of activated charcoal, the kind they use in fish tanks. There are many brands, but the kind I use are shaped like pellets and are in individual bags. Also pick up some wadder or filter material. cover the inside front and back with the filter material and dump in your charcoal. I close my filter box at the top with screws.
At the bottom of the diagram you can see that I made a box that sits in the closet using wood that is quit wide. You can also see that the bottom and top are connected with long planks which a) help support the self and b) give something for the front cover to rest against. You will also notice that you do not need to make sides or backs for the closet.
You hang your air-cooled light from the self, connect it your inline fan with duct and your ready to rock. Of course the Filter box will need to be air tight for it to effectively filter the smell. This is accomplished using Children's Kami-nendo, like play-do, but made with paper. Fill in all the cracks using the kami-nendo till it's air-tight. Once every 6 months or so you will need to remove the filter box and replace the charcoal once it's used up.
To cover the garden up you can find large pieces of plastic for like 1,000 yen at the home-centers. they come in many colors. I double mine up with black on the outside and white on the inside for better reflection.
The negative air-pressure caused by the inline fan / filter box will make sure that almost no smell escapes the rest of the garden, so it doesn't have to be air-tight; in-fact you want the fresh air to be able to freely come into the box.
With this kind of setup, I've had smokers sit right in front of a closet garden and not even realize it. It works wonders.
Issues of concern:
1) The garden will run a few degrees hotter than the rest of the room, so the main room will have to be air-conditioned or heated to a few degrees lower than your target temp
2) Inline filters and other equipment can make noise. My fan lies on some kind of jelly like rubber that reduces vibrations. If you are doing a dwc type grow it might be a good idea to have a fish tank in the room to mask the noise caused by the bubbles.
Grow safe.
