In this article,Clean will bring the newest and most detailed introduction of air filter grades and ratings,US and EU standards,and all things related.

The classification of air filters are different in different countries,due to the different standards.People are always confused by these complex info.There are already many articles about this on the internet,but some are outdate and some are not so exact.We will bring you the newest and the most detailed introduction of the classification of air filter including HEPA.

There are 2 most popular standard for air filter classfication:the Europe Union standard and the United States standard.Although in the year 2016,ISO 16890 was published by Internatinal Standardization Orgnization ,in order to establish a global standard for air filter, it is not mature and rarely used.

New standard ISO 16890:

The EU standard is more popular,especially when used for HEPA.As for HEPA,cus the US standard is not often used,people in the US also use EU standard to describe HEPA.That’s why Americans serach words like “H13 HEPA”,etc.

The United States standard:MERV,IEST-RP

MERV filter:In United State,air filters whose filtration efficiency lower than HEPA use MERV rating which means Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value,designed by American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers(ASHRAE).MERV rating is designed to represent the worst-case performance of a filter when dealing with particles in the range of 0.3 to 10 micrometers. So it is not designed for HEPA.MERV rates from 1 to 16.Some people use MERV 17~20 to refer to HEPA,but this is not quite accurate.

HEPA:HEPA filter is defined by the US Department of Energy (DOE),pointing that filters which can remove 99.97% of contaminant particles 0.3 um in diameter is HEPA.And IEST-RP standard is used to rate a HEPA,from type A to type J.But people rarely use this IEST-RP standard,instead EU standard is prefered.

ULPA:ULPA filter is also using IEST-RP,rating type K.

America air filter standard and rating:ASHRAE 52.2(MERV) and IEST-RP-CC001：

The Europe Union standard:EN779 and EN1882
In the EU,there are also 2 standards designed for common filters and HEPA.

EN779:This standard is designed for coarse filter,medium filter and fine filter.These filters grades from G1 to F9.

EN779：

EN1882:designed for EPA,HEPA and ULPA filter.This grade is from H10(older EN1882 version called E10)to U17.Be aware,H10 H11 are not HEPA filter.

EN1882：