Evaluating the environmental performance of indoor plants in buildings

The effect of indoor plants on indoor environmental conditions is often underestimated or ignored while undertaking building simulation performance assessments. The literature suggests that regularly irrigated plants will evaporate and transpire, and as a result they could alter the humidity, temperature and CO2 concentration inside buildings. Indoor plants could in some cases also affect the amount of solar radiation falling on surfaces, but relevant shading claculations would require adequate geometrical definitions of the plants in relation to their position in building spaces. This paper exlicates a methodology for representing indoor plants in whole building simulation.