BTU/h to Tons of Refrigeration

BTU per hour and tons of refrigeration

One BTU per hour is about 0.293 watts. Air conditioners, heaters and furnaces in the US are sized in BTU/h, often written just "BTU".

A ton of refrigeration is 12,000 BTU per hour, about 3,517 watts: the cooling from melting one short ton of ice per day. Central air conditioners, chillers and heat pumps in North America are sized in tons.

Worked example

Convert 36,000 BTU/h: 36,000 × 0.00008333333333 = 3, so 36,000 BTU per hour is 3 tons of refrigeration. Likewise 10,000 BTU/h = 0.8333333333 TR.

Estimating in your head

Divide by 12,000 for a quick figure; it is off by about 0%. For 36,000 BTU/h that gives 3 TR, against 3 exactly.

Going the other way

To convert tons of refrigeration to BTU per hour, divide by 0.00008333333333 (or multiply by 12,000). The swap button between the boxes opens that page.

TR = BTU/h × 0.00008333333333

1 BTU/h = ≈ 0.2930710702 W and 1 TR = ≈ 3,516.852842 W, both by definition, so the factor is their ratio: 0.00008333333333 (rounded here; the page uses the full value). Results drop binary floating-point noise beyond 15 significant digits and display at the precision you choose (6 significant figures by default). Copy result copies the full value.