An improved cooling cycle for a conventional domestic refrigerator-freezer utilising an ejector for vapour precompression is analysed using an idealised model. Its energy efficiency is compared to that of the conventional refrigerator-freezer system. Emphasis is placed on off-design conditions. The ejector-enhanced refrigeration cycle consists of two evaporators that operate at different pressure and temperature levels. the ejector combines the vapour flows exiting the two evaporators into one at an intermediate pressure level. The ejector cycle gives an increase of up to 12.4% in the coefficient of performance (COP) compared to that of a standard refrigerator-freezer refrigeration cycle. The analysis includes calculations on the optimum throat diameters of the ejector. The investigation on the off-design performance of the ejector cycle shows little dependency of energy consumption on constant ejector throat diameters.

KEYWORDS: year 1995, domestic, refrigerators, freezers, cycles, cooling, energy, efficiency, ejector compression refrigeration, comparing, performance, energy consumption, calculating, energy conservation, coefficient of performance