1. What is Cooling Tower TR?
TR means “Tons of Refrigeration.”
Cooling Tower TR is the heat removal capacity expressed in Tons of Refrigeration, where 1 TR = 12,000 BTU/hr.
It is a unit to express the cooling capacity of a cooling tower.
Definition:
1 TR = Heat required to melt 1 ton of ice in 24 hours at 0°C.
In cooling systems, 1 TR = 12,000 BTU/hr ≈ 3.517 kW ≈ 3024 kcal/hr.
In Cooling Towers:
TR indicates how much heat the tower can reject from circulating water.
Used to size and rate cooling towers for HVAC, process, and industrial applications.
Example:
A 100 TR cooling tower can reject heat equivalent to 100 tons of refrigeration load.
2. How do you calculate Cooling Tower TR?
Cooling tower TR is calculated using water flow rate × specific heat × temperature drop, divided by 3024.
Formula:
Where:
m = Water flow rate (kg/hr)
Cp = Specific heat of water (≈ 1 kcal/kg°C)
ΔT = Cooling range (Hot water temp – Cold water temp, °C)
3024 = kcal/hr equivalent of 1 TR
Simplified (if flow in m³/hr):
Example:
Water flow = 300 m³/hr
Hot water temp = 40°C, Cold water temp = 32°C
ΔT = 8°C
