Re: refrigerator

["Bob Sciamanda" <trebor@velocity.net>]

OK! Let me just wrap it all up.  The unit refers to the days when one
bought ice instead of mechanical devices.
The heat of fusion of H2O is 80 cal/gm = 144 btu/lb.  Thus it takes 144 x
2000 = 288,000 btu to melt 1 ton of ice.  To do this in 1 day at a
constant rate requires a "cooling rate" of 288000 / 24 = 12000 btu / hr.

Hence the industry uses the conversion factor: 1 ton of air conditioning
= 12000 btu/hr.


Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Sciamanda <trebor@velocity.net>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu <phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 13, 1998 11:54 PM
Subject: Re: refrigerator


> An apropos tease question:
>
> What is "a ton of air conditioning (or refrigeration)" and why is it so
> called?
>
> Last summer while shopping for central air conditioning, I found that
> although room air conditioners are specified in BTU/hr, central air
> conditioning units are specified in "tons of air conditioning".  It took
> a laborious net search and sending AC engineers back to their literature
> to translate this specification.  Who in Phys-L has the answer?
>
> Bob Sciamanda
> Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
> trebor@velocity.net
> http://www.velocity.net/~trebor