Over the past decade, the use of technologies that arealternatives to the hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) direct-expansion(DX) systems for supermarket refrigeration have continued togarner interest. The market for such alternative systems hasbeen thriving for several years in Europe and is beginning togain some momentum in North America. One of the majorunresolved issues with use of novel refrigeration systems isobtaining an accurate measurement of the energy consumptionfor system comparison. The motivation for having accurateenergy consumption is discussed along with field results thathave been published. Low-temperature systems are the mainfocus of the discussion due to the larger energy consumption.However, the issues discussed also pertain to medium-temperaturesystems. The factors necessary to formulate a propercomparison of systems are presented as well as a discussion ofthe need to perform testing to determine the impact of thesefactors.