Can indoor plants improve the air?

Produce oxygen and harmful substances that degrade the indoor air: indoor plants have a positive effect on the indoor air quality, so the common opinion. Studies of Drexel University, according to the capacity of the plant is overvalued, however. More effective is to simply open the window.

A closer look at 30 years of research showed that ventilation systems or open Windows to exceed the air cleaning plant wide. "Plants are great, but they do not clean the air fast enough to verändern&quot to the air quality of your home or office;, Dr. Michael Waring, Professor of architecture and environmental engineering, said at the Drexel College of Engineering.

Waring and his doctoral student Bryan Cummings published their conclusions in the "Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology". Their Central finding is that the both ventilation systems used in passive houses, as well as simple window open to reduce the concentrations of harmful Compounds in the air much faster than plants can remove air.

One to two plants per room, have little effect

According to calculations by Waring and Cummings between 10 and 1,000 plants per square meter would be needed to achieve the efficiency of the ventilation system of a building or of some of the open Windows. The effect of one or two pot plants was, however, negligible.

ZOU