A ton of refrigeration (commonly abbreviated as TR) is a unit of power used in some countries (especially in North America) to describe the heat-extraction capacity of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. It is defined as the heat of fusion absorbed by melting 1 short ton (2,000 lb; 0.893 long tons; 0.907 t) of pure ice at 0 °C (32 °F) in 24 hours.[2] It is equivalent to the consumption of one ton of ice per day and originated during the transition from stored natural ice to mechanical refrigeration. A refrigeration ton is approximately equivalent to 12,000 BTU/h or 3.5 kW. Air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment capacity in the U.S. is often specified in "tons" (of refrigeration). Many manufacturers also specify capacity in BTU/h, especially when specifying the performance of smaller equipment.First Crossing of the Alps by a Solar PlaneFinally a Workable System to Replace Current Energy Guzzling A/Cs?In 2007 we covered a Coolerado A/C system with the headline "getting close to solar powered air conditioning".

Back then, the unit produced 5 tons of cooling using 1,200 watts, getting within the range of what some people and small businesses could afford in solar panels. Now, the new Coolerado design can produce 6 tons of cooling using 600 watts, quite an impressive improvement!Read on for more details an a video detailing how it works.Boosting Solar Power Production TooOne interesting trick that Coolerado has - and that you can see in the video below - is the use of exhaust air from the A/C unit to cool down the solar panels. The reason for that is that solar panels produce less electricity when they get too hot, something that happens on the sunniest days when A/C is most needed. But cooling down the panels with exhaust air (that would need to thrown out anyway because it contains too much humidity) allows them to keep producing more, reducing costs because fewer panels are needed.The demonstration video is quite well done, check it out:One of the downsides of using an evaporative cooling system is that it uses water.

About 4 gallons per hour for the 6 tons system, or 96 gallons a day. In some very dry areas, this can be a lot, though it might still be better than using a regular A/C that uses tons of electricity. A good compromise would be the use of gray water (stored in a holding tank underground so it stays cool?).For more information about how this solar power A/C works, see this page.If you're interested in buying a solar powered air conditioner from Coolerado, check out this page.More Solar Air ConditioningGreencore's Solar-Powered Air Conditioner (Finally!)Coolerado Coolers: Getting Close to Solar Powered Air ConditioningSmall-Scale Solar Powered Air Conditioning Is Here (in Spain, Anyways)Solar Powered Air Conditioning Just Makes SenseMore Solar Power ArticlesSunSeeker II Solar Airplane to Fly Over Europe this SpringBiomimicry Breakthrough: Butterfly Wings Could Lead to Better Solar Panels7 Awesome Solar Boats You Must See Find Comfortmaker® products sold and installed in Wilmington, DE ?

Ventilation and Environmental Control What size air conditioner do I need for my grow room?Don't know how much air conditioning your indoor garden will need? This four minute guide to mini split and portable air conditioners explains it all painlessly and quickly so you're grow room doesn't get too hot in the summer (or too cold in winter thanks to reversible heat pumps!)thru the wall ac covers SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELac unit in house not working Subscribe to our newsletterac unit bestCommercial refrigeration systems in the US are mostly rated in tons of refrigeration and this term is used widely in other parts of the world. However, outside the US, cooling systems may be normally specified in kW (or MW) or in Btu/h. The roots for refrigeration are in the ice making industry, and the ice manufacturers wanted an easy way of understanding the size of a refrigeration system in terms of the production of ice.

If 288,000 Btu are required to make one ton of ice, divide this by 24 hours to get 12,000 Btu/h required to make one ton of ice in one day. This is the requirement for the phase change from liquid to solid — to convert water at 0°C (+32°F) into ice at 0°C (+32°F). As a practical matter, additional refrigeration is required to take water at room temperature and turn it into ice. To be specific, one ton of refrigeration capacity can freeze one short ton of water at 0°C (32°F) in 24 hours. So, a ton of refrigeration is 3.517 kW. This is derived as follows: The latent heat of ice (also the heat of fusion) = 333.55 kJ/kg = 144 Btu/lb One short ton = 2000 lb Heat extracted = 2000 x 144/24 hr = 288000 Btu/24 hr = 12000 Btu/hr = 200 Btu/min 1 ton refrigeration = 200 Btu/min = 3.517 kJ/s = 3.517 kW = 4.713 HP A much less common definition is: 1 tonne of refrigeration is the rate of heat removal required to freeze a metric ton (1000 kg) of water at 0°C in 24 hours.

Based on the heat of fusion being 333.55 kJ/kg, 1 tonne of refrigeration = 13,898 kJ/h = 3.861 kW. Thus, 1 tonne of refrigeration is 10% larger than 1 ton of refrigeration. Another unit of measure is the calorie which is the amount of heat removal required to raise or lower the temperature of one gram of water by one °C. A kilo-calorie is the amount of heat required to raise or lower 1 kg of water by 1°C. One ton of refrigeration is equal to 3024 kilo-calories per hour. This is 12,000 BTU/ h divided by 2.204 (pounds per kilogram) divided by 1.8 (°C to °F). Most residential air conditioning units range in capacity from about 1 to 5 tons of refrigeration or 3.5 kW ~ 17.5 kW, or 12,000 Btu/h ~ 60,000 Btu/h. Large industrial chiller systems range up to 800 tons of refrigeration (2.8 MW or 9.6 million Btu/h). Calculating chiller and cooling tower refrigeration - in tons Cooling towers tons pairs the water-cooled chiller tons and the water-cooled condenser tons.  Chiller Refrigeration Tons The process of cooling is called refrigeration.

Refrigeration or cooling capacity can be measured in tons. A water-chiller refrigeration ton is defined as: 1 Refrigeration Ton (RT) = 1 TONScond = 12000 Btu/h = 200 Btu/min = 3025.9 k Calories/h = 12661 kJ/h = 3.517 kW 1 kW = 0.2843 Refrigeration Ton (RT) A ton is the amount of heat removed by an air conditioning system that would melt 1 ton (2000 lbs.) of ice in 24 hours. The heat required to melt 1 lb of ice at 32 oF to water is 144 Btu. 1 Ton Refrigeration = (2000 lb) (144 Btu/lb) / (24 hr)     = 12000 Btu/hr Converting between Btu/h and Tons of Refrigeration Btu/h Refrigeration Ton 6000 1/2 12000 1 18000 1 1/2 24000 2 30000 2 1/2 36000 3 42000 3 1/2 48000 4 54000 4 1/2 60000 5 Cooling Tower Tons A cooling tower ton is defined as: 1 cooling tower ton = 1 TONSevap = 1 TONScond x 1.25 = 15000 Btu/h = 3782 k Calories/h = 15826 kJ/h The equivalent ton on the cooling tower side actually rejects about 15000 Btu/h due to the heat-equivalent of the energy needed to drive the chiller's compressor.

This equivalent ton is defined as the heat rejection in cooling 3 U.S. gallons/minute (1500 pound/hour) of water 10°F, which amounts to 15000 Btu/hour, or a chiller coefficient-of-performance (COP) of 4.0 - a COP equivalent to an energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 13.65. Heat Load and Water Flow A water systems heat load in Btu/h can be simplified to: h = cp ρ q dt     = (1 Btu/lbm oF) (8.33 lbm/US gal) q (60 min/h) dt     = 500 q dt         (1) where h = heat load (Btu/h) cp = specific heat, 1 (Btu/lbm oF) for water ρ = 8.33 (lbm/US gal) for water q = water volume flow rate (US gal/min) dt = temperature difference (oF) Example - Water Chiller Cooling Water flows with 1 gal/min and 10oF temperature difference. The ton of cooling load can be calculated as: Cooling load = 500 (1 US gal/min) (10 oF) / 12000     = ton Converting between heat and energy units Converting kW/tonn to COP or EER en: cooling load tonses: enfriamiento de toneladas de cargade: Kühllast Tonnen