Cool Summer Plants

[Anchor Lead]

Summer in Korea can be tough due to high temperatures as well as very high humidity. Indoors, fans and air conditioning are a must. But it's known that plants can also play a role in managing room temperature and humidity inside your home. Let’s check it out.

[Pkg]

Just the sight of green plants gives you a cool, refreshing sensation. Covering gray cement walls with green plants is called wall greening. Outer walls covered this way are said to lower indoor temperature. Taking this method inside would create a green wall as seen here. Greenery covers the entire side of a wall at this home. Every plant has a separate flower pot, making it easy to take them out and put them back in. Water flows behind the plants, thus no need to laboriously water them. The flow of water is powered by electricity but this doesn't consume that much energy. Actually this family has saved on their power bill as they don't turn on the AC. How effective are green walls in lowering room temperature? Temperatures were measured at two locations, in the living room where the green wall exists, and another room where windows face the same direction as the ones in the living space. After a while, the living room temperature goes down to 27 degrees Celsius while it stayed at 29 in the other room. The space with the green wall is found to be about two degrees lower than elsewhere.

[Soundbite] Kim Gwang-jin(Rural Development Administration) : "There are gas pockets on the back of leaves. Water particles evaporating through these pockets is what's called transpiration. In this process, water particles from the plants also take away the heat from the wall, lowering temperature."

But it's not only temperature that plants help to lower. These colorful plants are called Scandia Moss which feed and grow on moisture in the air.

[Soundbite] Han Jeong-eun(Florist) : "Scandia Moss is natural moss found in Scandinavia forests. It serves to absorb indoor humidity in the summer. It's easy to raise them with no watering or particular care required."

An experiment was held to see how much humidity can be reduced. A hygrometer, which measures humidity and Scandia Moss are placed in a sealed container. The initial reading was 72% humidity. After an hour, it has gone down to 65. It's clearly working. This time, we turn to air quality. Many households these days shut their windows to turn on the AC which pollutes indoor air. Air purifying plants come to the rescue. The Rural Development Administration last year conducted an experiment on the effects of plants on removing minute dust particles. The same amount of fine dust was injected into two sets of sealed space, and rubber trees were placed in just one side. After a while, dust levels where the plants were placed dropped by five times. Other air plants such as Boston fern, ivy and Tillandsias can also help purify air. Plants work wonders as they lower temperature and humidity and also improve air quality which leads to lower energy consumption. Make sure to utilize plants to enjoy a cool summer!