Why is Air Conditioning Measured in Tons?

Tons of Ice

Within the early days of cooling, ice harvested from lakes within the winter was saved and used because the medium to soak up the summer time warmth from the air. Blow a fan over ice, the warmth of the air is absorbed by the ice (the cool of the ice is just not added to the air). The ice melts because it absorbs the warmth. Again within the day, a movie show would order saved ice to be delivered every day. The theater would obtain ice in a amount to get them by means of to the subsequent day. The enterprise would order “tons” of ice to make by means of till they wanted ice the subsequent day. This implies a 3 ton system in a median house would want 3 tons of ice per day to get the equal cooling of a contemporary air conditioner. A cubic foot of ice weighs about 57 kilos, so one only one ton of it’s about 35 sq. ft of ice!

Warmth BTUs

BTU (British Thermal Unit) is a measure of warmth. Particularly, 1 BTU is the quantity of warmth required to boost the temperature of 1 pound of pure water one diploma Fahrenheit (about 16 fluid ounces, since water is the bridging medium between quantity and weight measurement: i.e. one fluid ounce of water = one weight ounce of water) . Warmth is the equal of power. Similar to you’ll be able to’t produce unfavourable power, you can also’t produce unfavourable warmth (one may name this idea cooling). Due to these limitations, we’re left with our solely potential methodology of cooling. AC programs needed to be made in a approach to push warmth BTUs from the air inside, into the already sizzling air exterior. We’ve to face the truth that if air-con was simple, we wouldn’t want all these sophisticated machines.

The Science of Cooling

Why is that this all about warmth? one may say, I need to cool my house! Nicely, science (presently) doesn’t will let you add cooling, it solely permits your so as to add warmth. However, one may protest, it’s sizzling in my house, it’s actually sizzling exterior, the place does the warmth go? Air conditioners use an evaporation and condensing cycle to maneuver warmth (power) from inside your house to the surface. Utilizing the properties of refrigerant below stress, an AC unit pumps refrigerant fuel to reject warmth to the surface air which then subcools the refrigerant to permit the indoor air passing over it to maneuver it’s warmth to the now cooler fuel (superheat). Refrigerants are chosen by the convenience at which they are often pressurized right into a liquid and depressurized right into a fuel with a temperature change.

Convert HVAC Tons to BTUs

Tons is the load of ice, a BTU is the quantity of power it takes to boost one pound of water by one diploma Fahrenheit.