Refrigerator Capacity - Liters and Tons

The answer is maybe to be found in the volume of 1 ton of air or the weight of a litre of air?
Del

For air conditioning, there's an explanation of tonnage here.

For refrigeration, it's just referring to the volume of the enclosed space which can be kept at the required temperature (~ 4°C).

Rate of refrigeration is measured in tons. This means the removal of enough heat to melt one ton (1000kg) of ice in 24 Hr. This is in street lingo. In more technical terms it means the the removal of 12000 BTU's of heat per hour. (BTU=British Thermal Unit.) The storage volume of a fridge is measured in liters which is rather strange, but this is how it is. To convert I liter into a spatial dimension is as follows: one liter of water at around 25 dg C has a volume of 1000 cc. (cubic centimeters,) which is a cube of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm or one cubic decimeter. Which is 0.001 cubic meter. So if your fridge has a storage capacity of 150 liters it simply means a capacity of 150 cubic decimeters. Hopefully the above was clear enough.

Hi, I think the others have already answered your question and the 'Guest' has done it quite exhaustively. However, to put it in simple terms, 'refrigerator capacity' is the volume of space available inside the refrigerator where you store things to keep them cool and air-conditioner capacity is defined in 'Tons of Refrigeration' which a unit of measurement and can be equated in BTUs and other Thermal units.

With regard to your second question, yes! there exists a relationship between the 'space to be cooled' and the capacity of A/c plant in 'Tons of refrigeration' (in your case, refrigerator compressor) that is required to maintain the required temp range for that space. Calculations for all environmental conditions like sealing of the space, number of time the door of refrigerator will be opened and the quantity of the material that goes inside and its initial temp as well as the rate of cooling required, the ambient temp etc., will all play a role in deciding the relationship.

Dear Mr. Maqlak

There is no relation between tons of refrigration and liters

When we talk about refrigrators we are more intrested in its volumatric capacity, that is to say that how much stuff a refrigrator can hold inside for cooling, which is measured in liters or cubic meter.

When we talk about air conditioner we are more intrested in it coolin effect which is measured in tons of refrigration or btu/hr.

I think this is the only reason we say liters for refrigrator.

Regards

Iqbal Karachi

Multiply length by width by height to get cubic centimeters or cc which is equal to milliliters and there are 1000 ml in a liter so you need to divide the cc by 1000 to get the answer to how many liters in volume there are.

i.e. If your container is 68 cm x 45 cm x 35 cm, you multiply them together to get the answer in cubic centimeters. [110160] Then divide that by 1000 to bring it back to litres and the answer in liters is 110.16 liters