Sunday, November 15, 2009

Does my house have a higher concentration of oxygen if I have a lot of house plants?

I have lots of houseplants. In theory, my house should have more oxygen than most people's. Am I right?

Does my house have a higher concentration of oxygen if I have a lot of house plants?
I test houses for indoor air quality and my meter is set up to measure the percent of Oxygen (O2) and CARBON MONOXIDE (CO) in parts per million. I have never seen a house with higher than the average oxygen 20%.
Reply:maybe a very slight higher conc of oxygen, but not enough to make a difference.
Reply:Humans breathe in oxygen and exhale carbondioxyde. Plants take in this carbondioxyde and release oxygen. At night, though, plants breathe the way humans do. So yeah, I think there's more oxygen in your house than in a house with no plants at all but you certainly won't notice it if you open your windows every now and then - it's not all that much, you know. Not like you could start charging your guests admission. =) On the other hand, with so many plants cleaning the air in your house, you may not feel the need to air it that often.
Reply:hmm.. interesting question. My guess is probably not, your house is not a vacuum, so the oxygen levels will try to equalize with the air outside. Kind of like when you put an ice cube in a warm glass of water, the ice cube eventually melts making the whole body of water one even temperature. The oxygen will equal out with the air around it. My theory...


No comments:

Post a Comment