House Plant O2 Production

Hello, I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone knew how much oxygen is produced on average by a common house plant. Some plants I have for example are Snake Plants, Philodendrens, Dracaenas and spider plants to name a few. I've looked all over the net but can't seem to find any good information on the subject other then which plants are good at it but don't provide stats to go with there proposed high yield O2 plants.

 

Hey Toni, thanks for your reply and posting a link! Some good points there but I don't know how accurate the plant O2 production is, as the author didn't talk about different plants O2 yields. One study from Nasa stated that 6-8 snake plants provided enough oxygen to sustain one human being in an air tight sealed room but on the other hand this study suggests it takes up to 400 plants to provide the same oxygen requirement. Still a good read though

 

I don't think you will see a significant oxygen increase but they do help clean the air. They absorb pollutants and exude moisture and oxygen.

 

Hello Carolyn and thanks for the feedback. Since placing top rated air cleaning and oxygen producing plants mostly in my bedroom, I've noticed that the quality of sleep I get at night has increased dramatically. I thought wow this is kind of cool and it must be from the increased oxygen content the plants where giving off, But maybe it's just from the air cleaning and added moisture they give off that is making the biggest difference as you stated. Thanks again for your post!

 

I think all 3 plants you have enumerated are good at oxygen production.
Snake plants are part of the top 3 oxygen producing plants along with sprouts and Areca Palm. Snake plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen at night. It is said that you just need around 6-8 waist-high snake plants to survive in a room with no other source of oxygen but the plants.

I am not that specific with the plant quantity to support a room without oxygen of philodendron but it's heartleaf is said to be a good source of oxygen at night time.

Dracaena is a good oxygen producing plant and is also known as and effective way to filter out formaldehyde out of the air.

moderator's note: removed website link, see point 1.1 of usage rules

 

Just saying "3 snake plants" is too vague. Snake plants come in many different species and sizes. A large plant with more mass would do more of whatever it is they do. If I separate a pup from the mama plant and put it in its' own pot, now I have another snake plant, but there's no way that little pup could clean as much air or produce as much oxygen as the mama plant with many more leaves that are much bigger.

Particular plants get mentioned as "air cleaners" or "oxygen producers" because they are common, stalwart in pot culture, grow quickly. It's likely other, more rare plants might do these jobs better but the motivations to test them does not lead people to do experiments with unusual or fussy plants. If your goal is to find plants to support human breathing in space or a biodome, fussy rare plants are not what you'd consider or study.

Bottom line, the more leaves in your house, the more they will do to improve your air, both by processing CO2 into oxygen and by removing toxins from the air.