Energy cost and use have become a global concern. ASHRAE has introduced sustainability goals for energy efficiency and healthy indoor environments. How should we deliver such sustainability promises to air filtration in HVAC systems? There is a growing demand from end users and filter manufactures to classify the air filters not only by particulate removal efficiency, but also by energy efficiency. Currently, all the filters are classified only by particulate removal efficiency and none of existing standards such as ASHRAE 52.2-2007 or EN779:2002 addresses the issue of energy efficiency. In this paper, two methods are introduced to classify the filter energy efficiency: key energy performance (kep) number and wattage. Four different models were applied to calculate the average pressure drop vs. dust loading as it is a critical variable to the energy efficiency. A new exponential model proposed in this research showed excellent consistency to experimental data of pressure drop during the dust loading process of ASHRAE 52.2 full test.

Units: Dual