In the present study, the overall conductance and the overall heat transfer area per unit capacity of refrigeration and heat pump systems have been minimized analytically considering both internal and external irreversibilities with variable temperature (finite capacity) heat reservoirs. Hot and cold side refrigerant temperatures, conductance and heat transfer area ratios have been optimized to attain this goal. The results have been verified with the more elaborate numerical optimization results obtained for ammonia based vapour compression refrigeration and heat pump systems working with variable temperature reservoirs. It is observed that the analytical results for optimum refrigerant temperatures, minimum overall conductance and heat transfer area deviate marginally from the numerically optimized results (within if one assumes a constant heat rejection temperature. The deviation of minimum overall conductance and heat transfer area is more (about 20%), if one considers both the desuperheating and condensation regions separately. However, in the absence of complex and elaborate numerical models, the simple analytical results obtained here can be used as reasonably accurate preliminary guidelines for optimization of refrigeration and heat pump systems. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.