6 ms·
From https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indo
by martey 7y ago
From https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-plants-clean-air-best-none-them/584509/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-p...
Recently, Waring and his colleagues reanalyzed all 195 studies that have examined whether houseplants can filter the air. They found that some types of plants can remove higher amounts of VOCs than others. But once you factor in the effects of working in a large room, none of the plants are able to do much.
Waring told me to imagine a small office, 10 feet by 10 feet by eight feet. “You would have to put 1,000 plants in that office to have the same air-cleaning capacity of just changing over the air once per hour, which is the typical air-exchange rate in an office ventilation system,” he said. That’s 10 plants per square foot of floor space. Even if you chose the most effective type of VOC-filtering plant, you would still need one plant per square foot, Waring said.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bannus 7y agoWow, you beat me to posting this exact quote!
- buildzr 7y agoIn many places new homes today include HRVs or similar ventilation systems which would likely do more than plants. I keep mine on 'intermittent' mode where it runs 15 minutes per hour all day.
- nextos 7y agoThat is spot on. The only solution is to build houses with better materials that release less VOCs and/or use an air filter with a good activated carbon stage. Carpets have become very popular. But cheap ones release tons of VOCs due to fire retardants and anti-stain treatments. I've switched to a house built in the Scandinavian style, with oiled wooden floors and simple soap-treated furniture. Not only beautiful, but also lacks the typical brand new smell. Theoretically much better in terms of nasty VOCs.
- swampthinker 7y agoMost modern European housing also has to abide by strict energy efficiency and air leakage standards, so they come with heat-recover air exchange systems.
- verelo 7y agoI came here to say exactly this. I'm in Toronto Canada and just renovated a duplex, i was required to install ERV's to exchange the air. VOC's from off-gassing is unavoidable with present building materials, so the best we can do is replace the air as often as possible to minimize the impact. They're not expensive, and the impact to air quality is massive.
- lxmorj 7y agoAir leakage standards in which direction?
- swampthinker 7y agoBuilding envelopes need to be tighter
- lxmorj 7y agoGot a Netatmo CO2 sensor recently and i think that needs to be rethought. That shit builds up fast inside a well sealed system.
- swampthinker 7y agoThat's why there are requirements around installing an air exchange system.
- rayiner 7y agoWhat is the health impact, in quantifiable terms of those "nasty VOCs?"