TON (Tonnage)

It is a unit of measurement used to quantify the cooling capacity of an air conditioning system or heat pump; it is commonly expressed in “tons”. For example, a residential air conditioning unit might be rated as a “2-ton” system, indicating its ability to remove 24,000 BTUs of heat per hour.

Fun Fact: One ton of cooling is defined as the amount of heat energy required to melt one ton (2000 pounds) of ice over 24 hours. In terms of energy, this is equivalent to 12,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) per hour. Put another way, if you have a 60,000 BTU furnace, you’d need a 5-ton Heat Pump to produce the same amount of heat output.