Abstract: Refrigeration and air conditioning are one of the leading consumers of electric power in the world. Most of the refrigeration systems are based on simple vapor compression refrigeration cycle. This paper is concerned with evaluating and comparing the performance of VCRS with and without the use of evaporative cooling on the suction and discharge line. The system is evaluated on the basis of attaining same temperature drop in evaporator chamber with and without use of evaporative cooling and thus finding out the COP of both the arrangements respectively. Wood fiber is used as a porous pad which is wounded over the suction line. Cooling the suction line (line which comes out of evaporator and goes into compressor) will reduce the temperature of the refrigerant going into the compressor, thereby reducing its specific volume and hence the compressor work. Wood fiber and coconut coir is used in turn for cooling the discharge line (line which comes out of compressor and goes into condenser). This is supposed to reduce the load on the condenser and thus enhance the overall COP of the system. It is found that evaporative cooling system increases energy saving up to 14%. The COP of the system increased by 7.2% with the use of wood fiber as the evaporative cooling pad on both the suction and discharge line. Also the increase in COP of system by using wood fiber on the suction line and coco0nut coir on the discharge line is 6.5%.

Keywords: VCRS, Refrigerating Effect (RE), Coefficient of Performance (COP), R134a.