After going through the hepa and electrostatic filters (and they do work) along w/ humidifiers. I want to try a natural approach. I would like to get some plants that will help humidify the air and provide some type of air filtration. I would like some suggestions of what type of plant.
Here are the conditions it will be exposed to:
1 Me - who knows very little about raising plants so I want low maininance
2 Very little to no natural sunlight, plenty of light from incndesent lights.
3 very low humidity inthe winter (forced hot air system)
4 high humitity - not overly hot (at most 90F) in the summer. Exposed to a/c in summer but humidity still high since it is in a basement that doesn’t get that hot.
5 If this matters located in the NYC metro area
as you can infer, I want a plant that will thrive under these conditions plus will take contaminants out of the air plus won’t provide it’s own (pollen, ect.) plus something that is satifing to grow, so I can see it is doing well. and lastly, it doesn’t have to be pretty.
I seriously doubt that any number of house plants will be able to “clean” the air in your home to a noticable degree. Bear in Mind that the average tree (Full size large tree, that is) filters about 40 tons of pollutants from the air in it’s entire lifetime.
In terms of Filtration, your common household hepa filer provides superior filtration than can be provided by indoor plants.
Consequently, A plant that produces humidity would not produce it in sufficient quantities IMHO to provide any measureable change, unless you stock every available space in your home with “moist soil” type plants.
Your breath alone in the run of a day will out-humidify even the most humid of plants. If you had plants that produce more humidity than you do, you would never be able to stop watering them, and your house would sweat indoors during the winter creating so much mold and mildew you would need to move to a new place just to stay healthy.
That’s just what I think though, so I could be wrong.
For what it’s worth, I keep two “peace lillies” in my office. I work in a sealed building in the New York metro area. Peace lillies were specifically recommended as a natural means of air filtration. Honestly, I haven’t noticed much of a difference in air quality. At any rate, as far as maintenance is concerned, I’m not a plant expert, and I haven’t killed them yet. I just wait for them to start drooping, then give them water. My office has external windows, so YMMV.
I also have an air purifier in my office, which does make a noticable difference, but not a very big one.