58 ASHRAE Jour nal ashr ae.

or g August 2006
Global Standards
For Filter Testing
T
he ISO and the IEC are cooperating with the European Unions
CEN (see Table 1 for acronym denitions) and other standards
organizations to create global standards for building air lters. The
United States, through ANSI, is represented on ISO Technical Com-
mittee (TC) 142, Cleaning Equipment for Air and Other Gases, Work-
ing Group (WG) 3, General Ventilation Filters. This group is writing
an ISO standard for a test method for general ventilation air lters.
Several other countries are participating and the list is being updated
continuously (see ISO/TC 142 Web site for the latest information).
By Paolo Tronville, Ph.D., Associate Member ASHRAE; and Richard D. Rivers, Fellow ASHRAE
A review of the major U.S., European,
and international standards in the air-
cleaning field should help ASHRAE
members in designing and specifying air
lter systems in the global HVAC market.
We encourage members to help develop
international standards in this technology
as they have with Society standards.
In this article, we discuss test standards
for particulate and gaseous contaminant
air lters in general ventilation systems.
Usually, along with test standards are
lter rating systems, which also need to
be understood by lter speciers.
Test Standards and Rating Systems
For Particulate Filters
Filters used for building general venti-
lation are tested at the time of their market
introduction, and subsequently for quality
control. ASHRAE Standard 52.1-1992,
Gravimetric and Dust-Spot Procedures
About the Authors
Paolo Tronville, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at
Politecnico di Torino in Torino, Italy. He is chairman
of ISO/TC 142, Cleaning Equipment for Air and
Other Gases. Richard D. Rivers is president of
EQS in Louisville, Ky.
2006 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (www.ashrae.org). Published in ASHRAE Journal (Vol. 48, August 2006).
For personal use only. Additional distribution in either paper or digital form is not permitted without ASHRAEs permission.
August 2006 ASHRAE Jour nal 59
Table 2: Comparison between ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2-1999 and EN 779:2002.
Item ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2-1999 EN 779:2002
Test Duct
1
Straight allowed, return bend preferred; Straight specied; positive and negative pressure
positive pressure only; ducts permitted, with leakage evaluation; more
rather strict dimensioning; conductive walls dimensional freedom; conductive walls
Test Air Room or recirculated air; Room, recirculated or outdoor air;
10C 30C, 20% 65% RH RH < 75%, temperature not specied
Test Aerosol Dry, approximately spherical, polydisperse Liquid, spherical, polydisperse
KCl (potassium chloride) DEHS (diethylhexyl sebacate)
Sampling Primary/secondary and diluters allowed; upstream and downstream lines must have same geometry, be rigid and
conductive; deviation from isokinetic ow condition is specied.
Discrete Particle Optical or aerodynamic counters allowed, Optical counter specied; 0.2 m 3.0 m in
Counter or Counters a matched pair of counters upstream and downstream, a minimum of 5 diameter ranges in near-logarithmic
or single counter, switched; 0.3 10 m steps; species a single counter switched
in 12 set diameter ranges. between upstream and downstream.
Test Stand Both standards require items 1 13. Standard 52.2-1999 also requires items 14 17.
Qualication Tests
2
(1) air velocity uniformity; (2) aerosol uniformity; (3) particle counter size accuracy; (4) particle counter overload-
ing; (5) particle counter zero; (6) zero lter efciency; (7) 100% lter efciency; (8) aerosol generator response
time; (9) neutralizer activity; (10) manometer calibration; (11) dust feeder airow; (12) duct leakage; (13) efciency
and stability of nal lter; (14) effectiveness of downstream mixing; (15) upstream/downstream correlation ratio;
(16) upper limit of aerosol count; (17) empty test section pressure drop.
Maintenance Tests Both standards require repetition of Qualication Tests 1 12 at various intervals. ASHRAE 52.2 also requires periodic
repetition of Tests 13 and 16, and adds two others: (18) check of the dust feeder venturi throat dimension for wear,
and (9) evaluation of the resistance and arrestance and particle-size efciency of a group of reference lters.
Electried Fiber Mention of possible decay of electrostatic effects, no
Includes procedure for conditioning lter to inhibit
Filter Testing recommendation. Addendum on a preconditioning
electrostatic effects and allow measurement of non-

procedure to eliminate electrostatic effects is
electried efciency.
under discussion.
Dust and Fiber Flow of HEPA-ltered air is continued
Shedding after the efciency test following an increment
Discussed but not specied.
of dust loading for 20 minutes. Particle count indicates
amount of shedding.
Notes
1. With positive pressurization, the static pressure inside the test duct is above the pressure outside the duct; with negative, the static
pressure inside the duct is below the pressure outside.
2. The upstream/downstream correlation ratio is the ratio (upstream count/downstream count) when no lter is between the upstream and
downstream samplers. This ratio, computed for each size range, is used to correct the efciency calculation for differences in between
upstream and downstream sampling line losses.
Abbrev. Organization Location Internet Site
ANSI American National Standards Institute USA www.ansi.org
AFNOR Association Franaise de Normalisation France www.afnor.fr
BSI British Standards Institution UK www.bsi-global.com

CEN
Comit Europen de Normalisation
European Committee for Standardization
Belgium www.cenorm.be
CSA Canadian Standards Association Canada www.csa.ca
DIN Deutsches Institut fr Normung Germany www2.nabau.din.de
DOD U.S. Department of Defense USA www.dod.gov
DOE U.S. Department of Energy USA www.energy.gov
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission Switzerland www.iec.ch
IEST Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology USA www.iest.org
ISO International Organization for Standardization Switzerland www.iso.ch
MIL-STD Military Standard (USA) (Document source) USA www.dsp.dla.mil
SAE Society of Automotive Engineers USA www.sae.org
UNI Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unicazione Italy www.uni.com
Table 1: Abbreviations and Internet sites for standards oganizations.
60 ASHRAE Jour nal ashr ae. or g August 2006
for Testing Air-Cleaning Devices Used
in General Ventilation for Removing Par-
ticulate Matter, and CENs EN 779:1993,
Particulate Air Filters for General Venti-
lation Requirements, Testing, Marking,
were quite similar standards, specifying
several tests. These included lter resis-
tance as a function of ow; resistance rise
when a coarse synthetic dust was fed to
the lter; dust removal efciency (arres-
tance) on the same synthetic dust at each
fed increment; and efciency on ambient
atmospheric dust (atmospheric dust spot
test), at each increment of dust fed.
For many years, these tests served to
characterize and compare lters but failed
to evaluate an important lter character-
istic: the efciency of the lter at specic
particle sizes. In addition, the dust-loading
information was merely comparative.
One cannot predict the service life of
a lter from the dust-holding capacity
provided by the two standards, because
the dust used for the loading test does
not represent what is found in actual air-
handling systems.
The first of these inadequacies has
essentially been overcome for revisions
of both standards: ANSI/ASHRAE
Standard 52.2-1999, Method of Testing
General Ventilation Air Cleaning Devices
for Removal Efciency by Particle Size,
and EN 779:2002, Particulate Filters for
General Ventilation: Determination of the
Filtration Performance, include methods
that determine lter efciency vs. par-
ticle diameter. The problem of a better
simulant for real dust in air-handling
systems is the subject of the completed
ASHRAE Research Project RP-1190.
1

The results of this study could inuence
future revisions of ASHRAE standards.
Standard 52.2-1999 and EN 779:2002
are detailed although not identical. Table
2 compares the standards. The similarity
between the standards and the involve-
ment of U.S. representatives on ISO/
TC142/WG3 offers the possibility that
a global standard for this class of lters
can be written soon.
Many manufacturers still use Stan-
dard 52.1-1992, testing by its methods
and publishing ratings based on them.
Standard 52.2-1999 and EN 779:2002
make use of the arrestance and dust-
loading procedures from Standard
52.1-1992 almost verbatim. Standard
52.1-1992 retains the atmospheric dust
spot test, and also includes a procedure
that evaluates automatic self-renewing
Table 3: Classes dened by ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2-1999.
Average Efciency (E), Average Minimum
MERV Percent in Diameter Range Arrestance, Final
0.3 m 1.0 m 1.0 m 3.0 m 3.0 m 10.0 m (A) Resistance
1 n/a n/a <20% <65% 75 Pa
2 n/a n/a <20% 65%#A<70% 75 Pa
3 n/a n/a <20% 70%#A<75% 75 Pa
4 n/a n/a <20% 75%#A 75 Pa
5 n/a n/a 20%<E<35% n/a 150 Pa
6 n/a n/a 35%<E<50% n/a 150 Pa
7 n/a n/a 50%<E<70% n/a 150 Pa
8 n/a n/a 70%#E n/a 150 Pa
9 n/a E<50% 85%#E n/a 250 Pa
10 n/a 50%<E<65% 85%#E n/a 250 Pa
11 n/a 65%<E<80% 85%#E n/a 250 Pa
12 n/a 80%#E 90%#E n/a 250 Pa
13 <75% 90%#E 90%#E n/a 350 Pa
14 75%<E<85% 90%#E 90%#E n/a 350 Pa
15 85%<E<95% 90%#E 90%#E n/a 350 Pa
16 95%#E 95%#E 90%#E n/a 350 Pa
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August 2006 ASHRAE Jour nal 61
lters (e.g., roll-type lters). Annex A
of EN 779:2002 includes procedures for
evaluating the electrostatic augmenta-
tion of aerodynamic filtration, which
could be adversely inuenced by many
unknown factors, such as the capture of
small particles and captured conductive
or oily particles. A proposed addendum
to Standard 52.2-1999 dealing with this
problem completed its rst public review
in December 2004 and is still under
discussion inside ASHRAE Standing
Standards Project Committee 52.2.
Both EN 779:2002 and Standard 52.2-
1999 include classication systems for
general ventilation lters. Table 3 shows
the MERV levels found in Standard
52.2-1999, and Table 4 shows the F and
G Classes found in EN 779:2002. The
system used by EN 779:2002 is simpler,
placing lters in categories determined
by their arrestance (for coarse lters)
and by their efciency on 0.4 m DEHS
particles (for ne lters). This size was
chosen because it approximately matches
the dust spot efciency value measured in
Standard 52.1-1992 that is widely used.
The Standard 52.2-1999 MERV (Mini-
mum Efciency Reporting Value) system
requires several steps. First, the efciency
in all 12 particle size ranges is determined
at each dust increment during the dust-load-
ing procedure. The minima for efciency
for each size range may occur for a clean
lter, or at some specic dust load, so the
second step is to select the minimum values
throughout the loading procedure.
The next step is to average the mini-
mum efciencies in three size groups:
0.3 1 m, 1 3 m and 3 10 m. For a
lter to rate a given MERV level, these
minima must exceed the values listed for
that level in Table 3. Note, however, that
only MERV levels 13 and above make
use of all three particle size ranges, and
the lowest MERV levels are still based on
average arrestance, rather than the count
procedure just described.
There is no exact correspondence
between any of the categories in the
two rating systems. Standard 52.2-1999
provides in its Appendix E a table that
attempts to correlate its MERV ratings
with Standard 52.1-1992 arrestance, dust
spot efciencies, and the ratings for HEPA
and ULPA lters tested according to other
standards. Table 5 lists the approximate
equivalents given in Standard 52.2-1999
Appendix E, to which we have added the
approximately equivalent EN 779:2002
and EN 1822:19982 ratings. Complaints
have been raised as to whether the nal
resistance specied by the ASHRAE table
for loadingwhich inuences average
efciencies as well as dust sheddingare
realistic. The nal resistances specied by
EN 779:2002 are even higher (450 Pa [1.8
in. w.g. for F lters) than those specied
by Standard 52.2-1999.
Test Standards for Gaseous
Contaminant Filters
Test standards for general ventilation
gaseous contaminant filters have not
progressed as far as those for particulate
lters. Many reasons exist for this. Gas-
eous contaminants may be toxic, odorous,
annoying, and damaging or disastrous for
manufacturing processes or building ma-
terials. These effects and the performance
of adsorptive and chemisorptive lters
depend on physical and chemical proper-
ties of individual contaminants; on their
concentrations; on the temperature and
humidity of the airstream reaching the l-
ter; and on the cumulative exposure of the
lter media, to mention a few factors.
Hundreds of contaminants are of serious
concern, and each has different properties.
Standards writers must select a limited
number of test contaminants that represent
those found in eld applications, and also
select test conditions that are representa-
tive and sufciently realistic to give mean-
ingful evaluations of lter media.
A group of standards has been pro-
duced by American Society for Testing
Materials (ASTM) to provide quality
control of many properties of gaseous
contaminant adsorption filter media.
However, the ASTM standards that evalu-
ate the mass of contaminant that a given
mass of adsorptive media captures and/or
holds (D5228-92:2000, D5160-95:2003,
D5742-95:2000, and D6646-03:2003,36
for example) use contaminant concentra-
tions far higher than those that prevail
in HVAC systems, and do not measure
contaminant penetrations through lters
in the course of their loading with the
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62 ASHRAE Jour nal ashr ae. or g August 2006
Class Final Average Average
Resistance Arrestance, (A) Efciency (E)
On 0.4 m Particles
G1 250 Pa 50%#A#65% n/a
G2 250 Pa 65%#A#80% n/a
G3 250 Pa 80%#A#90% n/a
G4 250 Pa 90%#A n/a
F5 450 Pa n/a 40#E#60
F6 450 Pa n/a 60#E#80
F7 450 Pa n/a 80#E#90
F8 450 Pa n/a 90#E#95
F9 450 Pa n/a 95#E
Table 4: G and F Classications dened by EN 779:2002.
ASHRAE
Approx. ASHRAE

EN 779: EN 1822:
Standard
Standard 52.1 Values

2002 1998
52.2 Avg. Dust Spot Arrestance
Classes Classes
MERV Efciency
20 n/a n/a n/a H14
19 n/a n/a n/a H14
18 n/a n/a n/a H13
17 n/a n/a n/a H13
16 n/a n/a n/a H10
15 >95% n/a F9 n/a
14 90% 95% >98% F8 n/a
13 80% 90% >98% F7 n/a
12 70% 75% >95% F6 n/a
11 60% 65% >95% F6 n/a
10 50% 55% >95% F5 n/a
9 40% 45% >90% G4 n/a
8 30% 35% >90% G4 n/a
7 25% 30% >90% G4 n/a
6 <20% 85% 90% G3 n/a
5 <20% 80% 85% G3 n/a
4 <20% 75% 80% G2 n/a
3 <20% 70% 75% G2 n/a
2 <20% 65% 70% G2 n/a
1 <20% 50% 65% G1 n/a
Table 5: Approximate comparison of MERV classes with performance
determined by other air lter tests.
contaminant. ASHRAE has sponsored research to establish a
gaseous contaminant lter test, and Standards Project Commit-
tee 145 has prepared a draft standard incorporating this work.
The standard
79
is to include sections dening tests that evaluate
loose granular ltration media, full-scale ltration devices and
installed systems. Unfortunately, the standard is only in draft
form for committee discussion.
Conclusion
Much has already been accomplished in developing air lter
standards that have worldwide acceptance. Additional standards
are moving through the approval process. Undoubtedly, new
technologies will require new standards. The continuation of
this work by international standards bodies, including revi-
sion of existing standards as better testing methods develop, is
important to HVAC system designers.
References
1. 2004. Final Report, ASHRAE Research Project 1190-RP, Develop
a New Loading Dust and Dust Loading Procedures for the ASHRAE
Filter Test Standards 52.1 and 52.2.
2. EN 1822-1:1998 High Efciency Air Filters (HEPA and ULPA)
Part 1: Classication, Performance Testing, Marking.
3. ASTM D5228-92 (2000), Standard Test Method for Determina-
tion of the Butane Working Capacity of Activated Carbon.
4. ASTM D5160-95 (2003), Standard Guide for Gas-Phase Adsorp-
tion Testing of Activated Carbon.
5. ASTM D5742-95 (2000), Standard Test Method for Determining
the Butane Activity of Activated Carbon.
6. ASTM D6646-03 (2003), Standard Test Method for Determina-
tion of the Accelerated Hydrogen Sulde Breakthrough Capacity of
Granular and Pelletized Activated Carbon.
7. ASHRAE Standard 145.1P, Laboratory Test Method for Assessing
the Performance of Gas Phase Air Cleaning Systems: Loose Granular
Media (Proposed).
8. ASHRAE Standard 145.2P, Laboratory Test Method for Assessing
the Performance of Gas Phase Air Cleaning Systems: Air Cleaning
Devices (Proposed).
9. ASHRAE Standard 145.3P, Field Test Method for Assessing the
Performance of Gas Phase Air Cleaning Systems: Installed Systems
(Proposed).
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