Tons of refrigeration

Definition

A unit of cooling capacity equal to 12,000 BTU per hour of continuous heat removal, originally defined by the amount of ice a machine could freeze in a day.

The unit traces to the ice-making industry, where capacity was set by daily ice production. A standard refrigeration ton represents the heat the chiller removes from the building, so a 1,000-ton chiller removes 12,000,000 BTU per hour. Large buildings, hospitals, data centers, and refineries are rated in hundreds to tens of thousands of tons.

Related concepts

Chiller · Cooling tower ton · Cooling load scale

---

Part of The Blueprint of Water · 📏 measurement