Ton Of Refrigeration (TR)

US & ImperialTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

12,000 BTU per hour, about 3.517 kW: the cooling power of melting one short ton of ice in a day. Air-conditioner capacity is quoted in tons.

1 ton of refrigeration = 3,516.852842 watts (approximately).

About the ton of refrigeration

Cooling capacity was first sold in the age of ice. The ton of refrigeration was the rate at which a machine could freeze, or an ice block could melt, one short ton of pure ice at 0 degrees Celsius in 24 hours. It grew up in the 1880s as mechanical refrigeration replaced natural ice, and Thomas Shipley of the York Manufacturing Company helped make it an industry standard in 1903.

The modern definition drops the ice and fixes the rate at 12,000 International Table British thermal units per hour, which is 3.516853 kilowatts, or about 3,026 kilocalories per hour. NIST gives the same figure as 3.516853 x 10^3 watts and does not mark it as exact. The unit survives mainly in North America, where air-conditioning and chiller capacity is quoted in tons, and a three-ton system therefore removes about 10.5 kilowatts of heat.

Sources: Wikipedia: Ton of refrigeration; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8

Ton Of Refrigeration conversion chart

1 ton of refrigeration expressed in every other power unit:

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