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If you’re looking for a hardworking air purifier and want something that looks good as well, turn to some air-cleaning species of indoor house plants. NASA conducted studies on the effectiveness of house plants in cleaning indoor air and found positive results. Some types of houseplants will effectively remove many of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that occur in homes.

VOCs can cause all kinds of physical reactions, from minor to severe. A tight home tends to have higher concentrations of VOCs and other air pollutants because there’s little fresh air coming inside. Bringing home new furniture, paint or carpeting can raise levels of VOCs and other undesirable indoor fumes, as can some household cleaning products and having an attached garage where you park your car.

Plants can remove common VOCs such as benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. The best plants for removing those pollutants include:

  • Snake plant
  • Bamboo or reed palm
  • Aloe vera
  • Golden pothos
  • Spider plant
  • Chinese evergreen
  • English ivy
  • Peace lily
  • Selloum, heartleaf, and elephant ear philodendron
  • Weeping fig
  • Cornstock, Warneck, red-edged, and Janet Craig dracaena

The NASA researchers also found that the soil and roots of these plants break down VOCs and double as a hardworking air purifier. They found that having 15 to 18 houseplants indoors with pot diameters between 6 and 8 inches provided ample air cleaning for a 1,800-square-foot home.

When choosing plants, check with a trusted website or an authority if you have small children or pets at home, since some can be poisonous when ingested.

You can also have the quality of your air measured by the pros at Pipe Works Services. We use an air quality monitor that checks your home for any number of indoor air pollutants. If your home has poor air quality, you can install a whole-house ventilation system. Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and heat recovery ventilators (HRVs), for example, take the energy from the air leaving your home and transfer it to the incoming air.

If you’d like to learn more alternatives to a hardworking air purifier, please contact us at Pipe Works Services. We’ve provided outstanding HVAC services for northern New Jersey homeowners for more than 10 years.

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