Cooling Tower Ton (heat load conversion)

Converts standard refrigeration tons to total heat load at the cooling tower. The tower rejects the building load (12,000 BTU/hr per ton) plus compressor heat (about 3,000 BTU/hr per ton, roughly 25 percent), giving 15,000 BTU/hr per cooling tower ton. Always use the cooling tower heat load for evaporation, blowdown, and sizing.

$$Q=N_{\text{ton}}\times 15,000{\text{BTU/hrcdotpton}}_{CT}$$

Variables

Symbol	Meaning	Unit
Q	Total heat load rejected at the cooling tower	BTU/hr
$N_{t}on$	Nominal chiller capacity in standard refrigeration tons	ton

Worked example

A 500-ton chiller: Q = 500 tons x 15,000 BTU/hr·ton = 7,500,000 BTU/hr.

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Part of The Blueprint of Water