Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the end of this century

Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by graeme on Saturday September 19, 2020 @12:31PM (#24528591)

It is simply not feasible to lower co2 in a space with a few plants. Ventilation is the only method that works.

This is trivial to test. Just get a monitor, walk into a room with plants, close door, and start breathing. Check change in co2 after 15-30 min.

Vent the room, remove plants, repeat. Results should be equivalent.

Plants store co2 by growing. They do not grow quickly enough to deal with emissions from your breath.

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by nip180 on Saturday September 19, 2020 @01:06PM (#24528863)

To put a number on it, you exhale ~2.3lb of CO2 a day. You should also consider that much of a plants mass is water, so it would require a significant amount of plant matter to scrub the air.

I once did the math, and found that an algae tank can theoretically offset a person’s entire CO2 emissions but that it would require a large external tank and I was living in an apartment at the time.

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by scruple on Saturday September 19, 2020 @01:18PM (#24528965)

There have been studies on indoor plants and air quality. The most well-known of which, I believe, was the NASA Clean Air Study [0]. The study suggested 1 plant per 100 sq. ft. but a space station obviously isn't the same thing as a dwelling.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by graeme on Sunday September 20, 2020 @12:22AM (#24531872)

That’s air quality, not co2. Air quality usually means particulates and VOCs.

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by scruple on Monday September 21, 2020 @12:51AM (#24539924)

Oof, you're totally right. Thanks for the correction!

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by ActionPlankton on Saturday September 19, 2020 @05:32PM (#24530456)

Once you have the carbon in biomass, what do you do with it? Dry it out and heat it enough to make biochar?

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Re:Indoor CO2 may reach levels harmful to cognition by the e... by nip180 on Sunday September 20, 2020 @09:24AM (#24533885)

Very good question. I had two avenues in mind, fungus and compost.

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