Air Purifying Plant Numbers – How Many Plants For Clean Air Indoors (2024)

FAQs

Air Purifying Plant Numbers – How Many Plants For Clean Air Indoors? ›

How Many Plants Do You Need? There's no wrong number for how many air-purifying plants to have in your home. For the best results, you should have one medium-sized (8-10 inch pot) plant for every 100 square feet of space.

“Challenge Accepted” - plant lovers everywhere. 10-1,000 plants per square meter would be required to achieve the VOC-reduction results that many research studies demonstrate.

Wolverton says that, absent expensive testing, it's impossible to guess how many plants might be needed to clean a room of its contaminants. But he usually recommends at least two “good sized” plants per 100 square feet of interior space.

Therefore, indoor air quality tends to improve as the variety of indoor plants is increased. In general, NASA recommends one indoor plant for every 100 square feet of space. Bill Wolverton's main conclusion has been that mankind must bring nature into isolated environments in order to provide healthy living conditions.

The study concluded that in an 1,800-square-foot house, occupants should incorporate 15 to 18 houseplants in 6- to 8-inch diameter containers to improve air quality. The larger and more vigorously they grow, the better.

The impact of different VOCs was inconsistent across studies, as was the performance of different plant species. But they said that in 196 experiments, plants were able to clean an average of 0.062 cubic meters of air per plant per hour, which is only about 13% of the half a cubic meter we breathe at the same time.

Plant-based air filtration is a natural way to remove mold spores and other pollutants from the air. Certain plants have been shown to be effective at removing mold spores from the air. These plants work by releasing chemicals that trap and deactivate mold spores.

Thanks to some initial research by NASA scientists who were interested in the potential of plants to help clean the air, we now know that many popular houseplants are actually quite good at removing some of the toxins that are often found indoors.

1.The NASA Study Recommends

Although it's impossible to say how many plants are required to filter interior air, Wolverton suggests at least two large plants for every 100 square feet (about 9.3 square metres) of indoor area. The larger and more leafy the plant, the better.

How many plants to replace oxygen? ›

Plants produce oxygen, and there is no doubt about that. Apart from the plants, various algae produce oxygen and sustain life on earth. On average, you will need around 300-400 plants to produce enough oxygen for a person.

Air plants can be grown in various rooms in your home, particularly those with higher levels of humidity such as the kitchen or bathroom. They can be displayed in creative ways, such as in glass terrariums, hanging planters, or mounted on to driftwood, tree branches, bricks, or stones.

A person would need to be in a room with about ten thousand leaves. About 300 to 500 plants would produce the right amount of oxygen, but it's much harder to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide the plants absorb, especially if every time a person breathes out, they inhibit oxygen production.

Having five or more plants produced even better results, with the magic number being 10 plants in a room of the size previously mentioned. In a larger room (8 x 8 meters, or 26 by 26 feet), 16 plants were needed to provide a 75% improvement in air quality, with 32 plants producing the best results.

The only time houseplants may cause a minor health inconvenience is for those who suffer from mold allergies. “Houseplants can have more mold in the soil,” says Dr. Redding. “And that is not a bad thing.

It's recommended to have at least one plant per 100 square feet of indoor space for noticeable air-purifying benefits. However, larger rooms or areas with higher pollution levels may benefit from multiple plants.

While plants can be beneficial, the evidence does not show that they are an effective tool to reduce air pollution. A 2014 review of the research in scores of studies⁵ found mixed evidence in real-world studies for improved air quality indoors.

A person would need to be in a room with about ten thousand leaves. About 300 to 500 plants would produce the right amount of oxygen, but it's much harder to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide the plants absorb, especially if every time a person breathes out, they inhibit oxygen production.

In fact, one young, healthy tree will cool a building as much as 10 room-size air conditioners, according to the University of Vermont Extension. House plants don't have quite such a dramatic effect, but they do help keep cooling and heating costs down by adding humidity to the room.