District cooling means the centralized production and distribution of cooling energy. Chilled water is delivered via an underground insulated pipeline to office, industrial and residential buildings to cool the indoor air of the buildings within a district. Specially designed units in each building then use this water to lower the temperature of air passing through the building's air conditioning system
The output of one cooling plant is enough to meet the cooling-energy demand of dozens of buildings. District cooling can be run on electricity or natural gas, and can use either regular water or seawater. Along with electricity and water, district cooling constitute a new form of energy service. District cooling is measured in refrigeration ton which is equivalent to 12000 BTU's per hour. Refrigeration Ton is the unit measure for the amount of heat removed. Refrigeration Ton is defined as the heat absorbed by one ton of ice (2000 pounds) causing it to melt completely by the end of one day (24 hours).
