Korea’s MEPS Rules for Fans, Dryers, Boilers, Air Fryers, and Printers Explained

Overview: Two Effective Dates, Not One

Korea amended its MEPS (Minimum Energy Performance Standards) rules on May 27, 2026, under Notification No. 2026-137, but the new requirements don’t all land on the same day. Gas boilers and clothes dryers move first, with new thresholds taking effect October 1, 2026. Fans, air fryers, and printers follow a few months later, on January 1, 2027. In both cases, what matters is the product’s manufacture date rather than when it’s imported or sold, and that rule applies to imported products just as much as domestic ones.

Under Korea’s efficiency labeling system, most regulated products carry a 1-to-5 grade label, similar to the energy stickers seen on appliances elsewhere. MEPS sits underneath that system as the minimum bar a product has to clear before it can be sold at all, whether or not it ends up with a grade label. That distinction matters here, since not every product in this update gets a star rating, as the sections below explain.

Gas Boilers and Clothes Dryers: Effective October 1, 2026

Residential gas boilers will need to hit a minimum heating efficiency of 93.0% for condensing models and 81.0% for general models, alongside tighter standby power limits of 3.0W and 5.0W respectively.

Clothes dryers get a maximum power use ceiling of 733 Wh per kilogram of drying capacity. That same number also anchors the bottom of the dryer’s 1-to-5 efficiency grade scale, so it affects both compliance and how a product gets labeled.

Fans, Air Fryers, and Printers: Effective January 1, 2027

Fans move to a new formula-based threshold that depends on the motor type, whether induction or DC/BLDC, and the fan guard style, radial mesh or non-radial mesh. This update also brings circulators formally under the fan definition for the first time, closing a gap where they’d previously sat outside the rule entirely.

Air fryers now need to meet a minimum efficiency of 0.260 kJ/Wh. The test itself is fairly hands-on: it heats a 950g brick to 180°C and measures how much energy that took, within a 60-minute window. Miss that window and the unit fails the standard outright, no matter how efficient it otherwise was.

Printers are measured against a maximum weekly power consumption limit that scales with both print speed and print technology, whether thermal, dye-sublimation, electrophotographic, thermal transfer, or solid ink. Sleep mode and off mode power draw each get their own separate caps.

Not All Products Get a Grade Label

Even though the 1-to-5 grade label applies to most regulated products, fans, gas boilers, air fryers, and inkjet printers are exempted from this rule. These four only need to clear the minimum efficiency floor to be sold, so their label shows a pass or fail against the threshold rather than a star rating. Clothes dryers and non-inkjet printers, by contrast, still get the full 1-to-5 grade treatment.

What This Means for Manufacturers and Importers

The compliance path looks the same across all five products: test at a KEA-designated lab, check the result against the threshold, apply whichever label applies (grade or pass/fail), and register the model with KEA before the product ships. None of this touches KC certification, which remains a separate track entirely. Where a product falls under both, it needs both, and passing one never substitutes for the other.

Key Takeaways

• Boilers and dryers change first, on October 1, 2026, with fans, air fryers, and printers following on January 1, 2027. Build testing timelines around manufacture date, not shipping date.
• Air fryers and printers are newly added categories, so for clients selling these into Korea, this is a new compliance step to plan for rather than a retest of something already in place.
• Fans, gas boilers, air fryers, and inkjet printers only need to clear the minimum threshold. No 1-to-5 grade label applies to these four.
• Circulators are now officially fans under this rule. Clients making or importing circulators for Korea should treat this as a new obligation starting January 1, 2027.
• MEPS and KC certification stay separate. A product in scope for both needs both, independently of each other.

Source

Korea Energy Agency (KEA) / Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE), Notification No. 2026-137, “효율관리기자재 운용규정” (Operational Regulation on Equipment for Efficiency Management), issued May 27, 2026. https://eep.energy.or.kr/pds/view.aspx?no=201&cate=4