Just get a filter that can filter VOCs if you have that kind of concern. And then add plants as you wish to make you happy.
We made a quick summary of keys insights of this report in the intro of our white paper https://bit.ly/3hjMqsB
In that case, just open the windows! Or use a heat exchanger if the temp isn't reasonable outside.
But, I was imagining a house sealed up with perfectly clean air and then "dirty" outside air getting in
I used to think they were kinda useless until I had tile ripped up. The neverending dust was driving my wife insane. On a whim, bought a couple purifiers and it's cut the dust down by at least 90%.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01N4IRIWK
If you're looking for more features and a more known brand, Costco has these for 99, which is a pretty good deal considering their size and that they come with all extra filters.
https://www.costco.com/winix-true-hepa-4-stage-air-purifier-...
But we ran a single Bissel Air400 in a 2k sq ft area and it visibly reduced the dust you see on glass cabinets and such. We used to have to clean them about every 3 days. With that running, it was about every 2 to 3 weeks!
You need another filter like activated charcoal which works differently than particulate filters (adsorption vs merely trapping particles in a winding path)
Relevant talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kamal_meattle_how_to_grow_fresh_ai...
A normal person need about 2000 kcalories per day. That's approximately 500g (1/2 kg) (1 pound) of sugar. Eating only sugar is bad, but most carbohydrates and proteins have a similar kcalories to weight ratio.
If the plant absorbs all the CO2 produced by the person, it must rebuild all that sugar back (and store it as cellulose, or starch or even proteins, but again all have a very similar similar kcalories to weight ratio.) So the plant must grow approximately 500g (1/2 kg) (1 pound) per day.
That is like 15kg (30 pounds) per month, that is a weigh of a small child. Or like 150kg (300 pounds) per year that is the weight of one or two adults. Plant's don't grow so much. (Note that you can reduce the weight to one half is the plant only makes oil instead of as cellulose, or starch or even proteins, but it still too high.)
Edit: Self nitpicking: About the reduction of weigh using oil, I used calories per gram instead of carbon per gram.
Oversimplifiying: In sugar the simplified unit is COH2, that has one carbon per 12+16+2=30 atomic units. In oil, the simplified unit is CH2 that has one carbon every 12+2=14 atomic units. So the ratio is aproximately 30/14=2.14 instead of the calories ratio that is 9/4=2.5. Both are very similar, so the end remark is still correct. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or if I think hard enough about energy per atomic bound it get obvious.
Proteins are harder, because amino acids are more diverse. I left the exact calculation for someone else, but as a rough simplification let's use achain of valine. The building block is C5ONH9 that is a carbon for every (12*5+16+14+9)/5=19.8 atomic units, so it's something in between. Anyway, don't expect your plant to make too much proteins. Even soy overdosed with fertilizer has only like a 15% of proteins.
2000 kcal == 2.3kwh.
If we assume the plant manages to put half of it’s total photosynthesis output into sugar (very generous), and hits maximum theoretical photosynthetic rates, 5.5% of sunlight would be converted.
A peak sun hour is 1kw per square meter. 5.5% of that is 50 watts.
You’d need 46 square meters of peak sun for an hour to produce 2.3kwh worth of output, even assuming a lot of ideal output efficiencies.
So yeah, total bullshit.
Carbon in, carbon out. In order for plants to balance that equation they have to grow about a pound of dry mass per day. There’s a reason the space station doesn’t just have a few plants up there instead of an advanced system to scrub and recycle air.