Is it normal that if you look up the compressor information used in a geothermal unit that the compressor rated capacity would be lower then the tonnage rating of the geothermal unit?

An example, a friend has a water to air unit, being curious we open one of the service panels to check out the unit. It has a Copeland scroll compressor. Looking up the part number online it shows the compressor to be a 2.5 ton unit. The geothermal unit is rated for 3.5 ton. What happen to the extra ton? :confused:

A compressor can be smaller in size than the unit rate. If you really want to dig into this go to Google and fish around for awhile. You will find some technical papers that are very boring to read.

I might be showing my geek side, but I actually enjoy reading those normally thought to be boring technical papers. I have spent a fair amount of time searching Google with limited results on geothermal compressor sizing. If you know of a particular article that addresses this topic, I would be very interested in being pointed towards it.

Thanks!