Abstract
Humans spend more than 80% of their lives indoors resulting in an increased demand for high indoor air quality (IAQ). At the same time, indoor air tends to be at least twice as polluted as outdoor air, and health threats caused by long-term exposure to indoor air pollution are rising. Few experiments under real-life conditions have demonstrated positive effects of indoor plants on parameters related to IAQ, resulting in improved humidity and temperature, reduced particulate matter concentration and CO2 levels. Indoor living walls allow the presence of many plants—without taking up valuable floor area. This article presents the results of conducted measurements on four do-it-yourself green walls planted with different plant species that are typically used for vertical indoor greenery (golden pothos, Boston fern, spider plant and a combination of plants) in a school setting. Besides the parameters of air humidity and temperature, CO2, mold spore and particulate matter levels, influences on room acoustics were investigated. Based on a custom-developed evaluation matrix, the plants were compared with each other and a reference without plants. The results show that no species led to deterioration of IAQ. Golden pothos had the most substantial effect and delivered improvements in all examined parameters.
Highlights
People in present-day society spend 80% to 90% of their time indoors [1]
Climate change, increasing urbanization and densification in inner-city areas require new ways and approaches to increase the quality of life and living comfort, especially when it comes to school buildings, where young people spend most of their time together in one room with many other students
Due to the different room-use scenarios of school classes and the fact that the examined room was partly unused due to COVID-19-related “home schooling”, the data were selected in such a way that the days on which the PM10 of all measuring devices reached a daily mean value (DMV) of at least 10 μg/m3 were considered
Summary
People in present-day society spend 80% to 90% of their time indoors [1]. Between 80% (developed countries) and 90% (EU-28) of the average 250 million liters of air a person breathes in the course of their life (about 10,000 L per day) is sourced from indoors (houses, workplaces, schools, shopping centers, public buildings or means of transport) [3]. The USA Human Activity Pattern Survey disclosed that an average adult spends 86% of their time indoors and an additional 6% inside public transport or private vehicles [4]. Climate change, increasing urbanization and densification in inner-city areas require new ways and approaches to increase the quality of life and living comfort, especially when it comes to school buildings, where young people spend most of their time together in one room with many other students.
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