Air Purifying Plants? Improving The Air Quality In Your Home

In 1989, there was a famous NASA experiment that found indoor plants could remove cancer-causing particles from the air. This has led many people to fill their homes with spider plants, Chinese evergreens, snake plants and many other indoor plants in hopes of breathing in cleaner air. However, scientists have since studied and found that the environment within a lab is different than an environment within a home, therefore, resulting in different conclusions. 

In the experiment, the plants were housed in a 2 foot wide and long chamber filled with various gases being circulated by a small fan (Source: National Geographic). In this environment, the plants were able to decrease the pollutants in the air. However, when taken outside of its experimental state, scientists found that the plants could not keep up with the rate at which the toxins were released into the air. 

“To reduce VOCs (volatile organic compounds) enough to impact air quality would require around 10 plants per square foot. In a small 500-square foot apartment, that’s 5,000 plants, a veritable forest,” according to a National Geographic article published by Sarah Gibbens in 2019. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that you need to throw away all of your indoor plants or go buy 4,986 more. It simply means that you need to reevaluate how you improve the air quality in your home. 

Where Science Meets Technology: NuBlue Air Helps You Navigate Your Indoor Air Quality Options

If you aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. NuBlue Air is proud to offer indoor air quality assessments to help you find a solution that works for you. 

Simple adjustments that you can make include replacing your air filters regularly, cleaning out your air ducts, and investing in a home purification system like the iWave. Many purification devices require ongoing maintenance and some may not completely kill all of the bacteria that it comes into contact with. However, the iWave is an economically and financially smart choice for any home or office. 

The iWave uses needle-point bi-polar ionization to create equal amounts of positive and negative ions which break down passing pollutants and gasses into harmless compounds like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapor. When these ions come in contact with viruses, mold, or bacteria, they remove hydrogen molecules – without them, the pathogens have no source of energy and will die.

Not only does the iWave do what it says it will do, but it’s also low-maintenance. The iWave is installed into your HVAC system and requires little to no maintenance while still performing in excellent condition. 

So keep watering your fiddle leaf figs and spider plants, but give the team at NuBlue Air a call to discuss how the iWave can help improve the air in your home all year long. 

Want to know about other common misconceptions concerning your home’s heating and cooling system? Check it out here.