While plants can absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) through photosynthesis, using them to significantly reduce personal CO₂ output is practically challenging.

Humans produce roughly 1 kilogram of CO₂ per day. Theoretically, plants could convert this, but the process requires energy. Even with perfectly efficient "magical" plants, around 132.5 watts would be needed. Real plants, however, require more energy due to inefficiencies in photon absorption and processing, pushing the requirement to around 918 watts of pure red light. This is equivalent to hundreds of incandescent bulbs, and with modern LED grow bulbs, the actual power draw increases substantially, often reaching 5,000-10,000 watts that are lost as heat.

Furthermore, plants have a limited capacity to absorb light, known as photosynthetic photon flux density. A fern, for example, can only absorb about 52 watts per square meter of leaf surface. To neutralize the daily CO₂ production of one person, this would necessitate at least 17.6 square meters of fern leaf surface area. Finally, for plants to sequester carbon, they must grow, requiring approximately 4.6 kilograms of new plant matter daily to store the carbon produced by one person. This plant matter must then be removed to achieve actual sequestration, highlighting the immense scale required for houseplants to make a meaningful impact on CO₂ levels.