You may have come across the NASA clean air study and this 4 minute TED talk by Kamal Meattle, an Indian businessman and environmental activist. Short version: you need 4 Areca Palm plants per person to convert CO2 to O2 during the day, 6-8 snake plants per person to convert CO2 to O2 during the night, and then a devil’s ivy to remove other chemicals from the air. He rattles off a list of measured impacts for working in an office building with an appropriate number of plants that also seem pretty convincing.
It’s not clear why he didn’t go with the ones that looked best on the NASA study, the Peace Lily (also recommended by Nicholas Angel) or the Chrysanthemum (also recommended by the Emperor of Japan). But this also the first place where I saw someone discussing the relevant conversion rate (i.e. three plants per person wouldn’t be enough); the NASA study synopsis on Wikipedia, at least, only mentions number of plants per area and doesn’t seem to take the leaf surface area of the plant into consideration. So one suspects he’s taken cost and efficiency into account.
I just wanted to say thank you for for including the links to the TED talk and other actionable info (i.e. which plants to buy and how many per person). I have a tendency to see things like the main post and go “oh, that’s interesting,” but then never really follow-up on them, but knowing that I have a list of which plants to buy was enough additional motivation to make me take the issue more seriously. I’m intending to do a bit more research and get a air quality monitor in the next few days.
Since you mentioned other plants, I am wondering if there are places to look to consider the different plant options. My wife said she “didn’t want ugly plants” (if possible), and I was also wondering if there were options I could look at that would be easier to care for (I live in the northern US, so I expect there may be >10week periods where taking a plant outside would be impracticable, not to mention unpleasant since we live in a large apartment building).
You may have come across the NASA clean air study and this 4 minute TED talk by Kamal Meattle, an Indian businessman and environmental activist. Short version: you need 4 Areca Palm plants per person to convert CO2 to O2 during the day, 6-8 snake plants per person to convert CO2 to O2 during the night, and then a devil’s ivy to remove other chemicals from the air. He rattles off a list of measured impacts for working in an office building with an appropriate number of plants that also seem pretty convincing.
It’s not clear why he didn’t go with the ones that looked best on the NASA study, the Peace Lily (also recommended by Nicholas Angel) or the Chrysanthemum (also recommended by the Emperor of Japan). But this also the first place where I saw someone discussing the relevant conversion rate (i.e. three plants per person wouldn’t be enough); the NASA study synopsis on Wikipedia, at least, only mentions number of plants per area and doesn’t seem to take the leaf surface area of the plant into consideration. So one suspects he’s taken cost and efficiency into account.
Curious, as this comment inspired me to go get a Peace Lily for my desk.
I work in an office, but sit by myself (nearest person is maybe 8 meters or so away from me). The plant sits maybe 10 centimeters away on my left.
Did Meattle focus specifically on those office environments where people sit closely together?
I mean, I will reap benefits from having the plant regardless, but now I wonder how much I benefit vs. getting more plants (which is doable).
I just wanted to say thank you for for including the links to the TED talk and other actionable info (i.e. which plants to buy and how many per person). I have a tendency to see things like the main post and go “oh, that’s interesting,” but then never really follow-up on them, but knowing that I have a list of which plants to buy was enough additional motivation to make me take the issue more seriously. I’m intending to do a bit more research and get a air quality monitor in the next few days.
Since you mentioned other plants, I am wondering if there are places to look to consider the different plant options. My wife said she “didn’t want ugly plants” (if possible), and I was also wondering if there were options I could look at that would be easier to care for (I live in the northern US, so I expect there may be >10week periods where taking a plant outside would be impracticable, not to mention unpleasant since we live in a large apartment building).
Unfortunately, that’s the limit of my knowledge. If you do find something useful, please let us know.