Bartlett Heating and Air Tells You Why Your AC is Measured in Tons

When you buy a new air conditioner you see that there are two ratings on it. One being the SEER which is its efficiency and the other one is tons from 1 and on. The ton rating is not the weight of the unit but its the capacity to cool. Back in the old days before electric air conditioners existed large blocks of ice were used to cool homes. The ice absorbs heat and melts, cooling your home. When they talk about tons when it comes to air conditioning, they are talking about how much heat it takes to completely melt a ton of ice. They came up with it needing 286,000 BTU (British Thermal Units) to melt a ton of ice. HVAC techs came up with 11,917 BTU/hr to melt ice in a 24 hour span so its consistent across the board as a standard. The capacity refers to the amount of heat it can remove and 1 ton has a capacity of 12,000 BTU/hr. The HVAC technician uses something called a Manual J to determine how much heat has to be removed from your home to cool it. It is not a good idea to get an air conditioner that is larger than the load you need because it just wastes energy and wont cool your home faster. Bartlett Heating and Air can come out and inspect that you have the correct sized air conditioner for your home, call us today!