How many tons of refrigerant are needed to prevent 2,000 lbs of ice from melting in 24 hours?

To determine the amount of refrigerant required to prevent 2,000 lbs of ice from melting in 24 hours, it's important to understand the concept of specific heat and the latent heat of fusion.

The latent heat of fusion for ice is the amount of heat needed to convert ice at 0°C to water at 0°C without changing its temperature, which is about 144 BTU per pound. For 2,000 lbs of ice, the total amount of heat that needs to be removed to keep the ice from melting can be calculated:

Total heat = mass × latent heat of fusion

Total heat = 2,000 lbs × 144 BTU/lb = 288,000 BTU.

Next, we need to convert this figure into tons because refrigeration is often measured in tons, where one ton of refrigeration is equivalent to the ability to remove 12,000 BTU per hour.

To find the number of tons required to remove 288,000 BTU in 24 hours, we divide the total BTU by the number of hours and the BTU per ton:

Total BTU removed per hour = 288,000 BTU / 24 hours = 12,000 BTU/hour.

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