29 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Can houseplants improve indoor air quality by removing CO2 and increasing relative humidity?
High indoor CO2 concentrations and low relative humidity (RH) create an array of well-documented human health issues. Therefore, assessing houseplantsâ potential as a low-cost approach to CO2 removal and increasing RH is important.
We investigated how environmental factors such as âdryâ ( 0.30 m3 m-3) growing substrates, and indoor light levels (âlowâ 10 ”mol m-2 s-1, âhighâ 50 ”mol m-2 s-1 and âvery highâ 300 ”mol m-2 s-1), influence the plantsâ net CO2 assimilation (âAâ) and water-vapour loss. Seven common houseplant taxa â representing a variety of leaf types, metabolisms and sizes â were studied for their ability to assimilate CO2 across a range of indoor light levels. Additionally, to assess the plantsâ potential contribution to RH increase, the plantsâ evapo-transpiration (ET) was measured.
At typical âlowâ indoor light levels âAâ rates were generally low (< 3.9 mg hr-1). Differences between âdryâ and âwetâ plants at typical indoor light levels were negligible in terms of room-level impact. Light compensation points (i.e. light levels at which plants have positive âAâ) were in the typical indoor light range (1-50 ”mol m-2 s-1) only for two studied Spathiphyllum wallisii cultivars and Hedera helix; these plants would thus provide the best CO2 removal indoors. Additionally, increasing indoor light levels to 300 ”mol m-2 s-1 would, in most species, significantly increase their potential to assimilate CO2. Species which assimilated the most CO2 also contributed most to increasing RH