In India most of the domestic refrigerators use Tetrafluoroethane, (CF3CH2F) i.e., R134a as a
refrigerant from Halofluorocarbon (HFC) group. This refrigerant though have a zero-ozone
depletion potential (ODP) but has high global warming potential (GWP). When it is released
into the atmosphere so many environmental issues like acid rains, global warming, etc., result.
Therefore, HFC group refrigerants should be banned in the coming years based on the Kyoto
Protocol. So, in the present research work, theoretical analysis was carried out to investigate
the properties of different low GWP refrigerants and their mixtures from different groups in
the perspective of the replacement of R-134a in a domestic refrigerator. The most promising
direct substitutes identified from this work are three refrigerants namely R513A, R513B
and R515A. The results revealed that COP and the Exergetic efficiency of refrigerant R513A
and R513B are on par with R134a with a slight difference of 5.6%, which decreases with the
increase in evaporator temperature. The total efficiency defect is more for R513A, R513B followed
by R515A and R134a, with a negligible difference. So, it is concluded that refrigerants
R513A & R513B can be directly used as an alternative to R134a, but when using the R515A
system needs some modifications.