Why Is Air Conditioner Capacity Measured in Tons?

Not long ago I was chatting with my friends after work, its sort of a get together we both will be reuniting after a long time so he came to me and we were sitting in my backyard drinking tea and talking the usual stuff then he started quoting a funny story to me about his cousin he told me that he was very open to new things, and he was always looking forward to doing something new.

He told his mother that he would be installing a 4ton Ac in the house, his mother was in a shock after knowing that his 21-year-old son will bring in something big in the house and the reason for his surprise was how he can put something so big and heavy in the house.

After listening to his mother he didn't look worried at all because he knew that his mother reaction was as expected.

When we articulate 4 ton air conditioner it means not in the mass capacity we were talking about the amount of heat that an air conditioner will exert out from the house per hour. Basically, 4 ton in common language means 48,000 pounds but technically in air conditioning electricity consuming terms we take 4 ton as BTU bit that’s actually a unit of measuring heat so we can say its 48,000 BTU. That’s why we compare air conditioning capacity in BTU within an hour.

You Want to know why ok lets elaborate as if you ever been to chemistry or physics classes I’m sure you have sufficient knowledge about this matter when ice is below freezing it definitely absorbs heat with the rising temperature, when ice is on the melting point 32 degrees Fahrenheit the ice starting to absorb heat but the temperature remains constant.

If you remember the lectures of physics or chemistry classes quantity of heat that needed to liquefy the ice in the units that’s 143 BTU for each pound. It’s a significant amount of heat which will thrust once the ice is dissolved into liquid water it will obtain 1 BTU per pound to raise the temperature each degree, so if you have a pound of ice on 32 degrees Fahrenheit you lay 143 BTU to melts the ice entirely.

So technically you required 180 BTUS to move up the temperature of 1 pound of water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit to boiling hot.

So getting back to what we are discussing if you have 1 ton of ice it acquires 143 BTUS Per pound multiply by 2000 per pound that will be equal to 286000 BTUS to suspend the ice fully, now that depends on you how quickly you will do that within an hour, days, months or a year, however, you can use it in 1 day that’s 24 hours as per the standard time reference. So when ice melts evenly within 24 hours it will soak up the heat with the rate of 286000 that will be equal to 11,917 units BTU/hr so circling it totally it will form up to 12000 BTU per hour.

So this is it now you know how you can install a 4-ton air conditioner in your home that’s your answer technically and scientifically that explains everything. I was quite amused after knowing those facts and figures now I know that’s how you can convert air conditioning heat capacity measured in tons. The Ac was finally installed in that house by that guy for his mother this way.