How To Grow Fresh Air Indoors With Plants - Natural Air Purifiers

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How To Grow Fresh Air Indoors With Plants - Natural Air Purifiers

By the editors of Heartspring.net with credit to Dr. Bill Wolverton, author of How To Grow Fresh Air. His research efforts were directed toward the use of plants and their root microorganisms to develop closed ecological life support systems for long duration space habitation. These studies utilized plants as a component of wastewater/nutrient recycling and the purification/revitalization of indoor air.

Using knowledge gleaned from this NASA research, three common indoor house plants have been identified as ideal for filtering indoor air, producing ready made oxygen for healthier breathing in home, work and play environments. Indoor air pollution often is higher indoors that outside, especially in closed winter environments. For larger buildings this approach works to reduce the fresh-air energy requirements, for meeting industrial air quality standards.

Here are the three indoor plants, and the numbers required, to help provide a healthy indoor environment:

Daytime - Active Area Plants

Areca Palm - Golden Palm - Chrysalidocarpus lutescens

4 plants, shoulder-high, per person Breaths in CO2 and breaths out oxygen during the day.

In excessively dirty air conditions such as the city of Mumbi, the leaves are wiped once per day with a moist soft cloth, and once per week in cities with cleaner air. Areca Palm prefers to have it' soil slightly dry between watering's and like the full sun.

Move the Areca Palm plants outdoors every three to four months to rejuvenate healthy growth.

More info on growing Areca Palm plants.

Night Time - Sleep Area Plants

Bird's Nest - Snake Plant - Sansevieria trifasciata

6 to 8 plants, waist-high, per person.Releases oxygen during the night, conditioning indoor air while humans and animals sleep.

The Birds Nest plant prefers intermittent dry conditions, and full sun, but it can survive in the shade.

More info on growing Bird's Nest plants.

Toxic Air Filtering - Work Area Plants

Pothos - Money Plant - Epipremnum aureum

3 plants per person, 18 inches highAbsorbs toxic vapors.

Works to remove toxic volatile organic chemicals, (VOC's) such as paint fumes, solvents and gas fuels. Many toxins are kept secret from flame retardants in furniture to household cleaners - nearly 17,000 chemicals are secret , according to the Environmental Protection Agency, as 700 new "secret chemicals" are added to products every year in the United States.

The Pothos plant is a moisture loving plant, that thrives using hydroponics and handles shade conditions well.

More info on growing Pothos plants.

With these three plants, it's possible to grow enough the fresh air to stay alive inside a closed environment for a long periods of time. Generally, pets will not eat these 3 types of indoor air filter plants.

Parharpur, India - Office Building, Air Quality Research Results

These three plants where tested for 15 years at Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park in New Delhi, India. The building is 20 years old, 50,000 square feet, employing over 1,200 plants for 300 working occupants.

The Parharp office building is rated the healthiest building in Delhi by the Government of India. This study was published on September 8, 2008 by The Goverment of India, Central Pollution Control Board and Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata, India

The study found that there is a 42% probability of increasing blood oxygen by 1% if one is inside the building for 10 hours. Compared to other non-planted buildings in Delhi, the Parharpur Office Building showed reductions of:

Eye Irritation - 52%Respiratory Conditions - 34%Headaches - 24%Lung Impairment - 12%Asthma - 9%

15% in energy costs where saved by injecting much less that the 15-20 cubic feet per minute of fresh air into the building as suggested by ASHRAE industry standards. This is significant considering how 40% of the worlds energy is used to maintain all building environments.

The most surprising discovery in this study was a measured increase in human productivity of 20%, a result of fewer sick days and increased employee productivity.

Another experiment sealed all fresh air and exhaust from the building for 6 weeks and found that that the air quality inside the building was better than outdoors

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