Want a cool house? Buying These Indoor Plants Can Help

plant Beautiful to look at, their uses are endless. They can purify the air in your home (especially with certain types of supercharged houseplants) and brighten dull spaces. But did you know they can also help you overcome your most depressing struggles? heat wave? This is real. Craig Morley, plant expert at Budget Seeds, said plants can lower the temperature in your home through a process called transpiration.

This greening guru has teamed up with homebuilder Barratt London to show how adding plants to your space can help lower overall temperatures and save you from having to Start the air conditioner.

Transpiration is the process by which water moves from the soil and through the plant to the leaves and stems. This is how water and nutrients are transported, but this process also keeps the plant cool as water evaporates from the leaves.

So how does this help us? “Transpiration also cools the area around the plant,” Morley said. A study conducted by NASA’s Earth Science Division suggests that massive plants could help combat rising temperatures due to global warming. On a smaller scale, adding plants to the home can help regulate indoor temperatures, although there is less research on how transpiration affects temperature on a smaller scale.

But hey. It doesn’t cause harm.

Tips for increasing plant transpiration

Morley shares tips for increasing evapotranspiration from indoor plants to enhance the cooling effect.

gettyimages-530329210 — More plants could be the secret to a cooler home this summer.

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Keep indoor plants well-watered: If the plant is not watered regularly, the rate of transpiration will decrease as the plant tries to conserve water.
Increase humidity: Placing the plant on a tray of wet pebbles can also promote transpiration. As the water evaporates from the tray, it creates a moist bubble around the plants.
Group plants together: Grouping plants together helps create a moist microclimate.
Make your pot bigger: Plants in containers may experience less evapotranspiration because their roots are often confined to a small space.
Avoid pruning in summer: Pruning can reduce a plant’s transpiration because it reduces water uptake.

Best Indoor Plants to Cool the Air

Plants on the windowsill — Is there anything that indoor plants can’t do?

David Wolski/CNET

Here are seven of the best air conditioning units to keep your home cool this summer. What do they have in common? The leaves are larger.

“Plant species have different leaf structures, which affects their transpiration rates,” Morley said. “Larger leaf size means there are more pores through which excess water can be released and increase transpiration.”