In this paper, the effect of various system parameters on horizontal ground source compression refrigeration machine (CRM) performance is studied experimentally in Bursa, Turkey. A ground heat exchanger (GHE) system connected to CRM in a test room in the air conditioning and refrigeration laboratory of Uludag University has been designed and constructed. This system was tested for space cooling in August and September 2004 and performance tests were performed during this period. Overall, system mainly consists of the GHE (GHE-water circuit) and CRM (CRM-refrigerant circuit). Refrigerant is R134a. Hourly variations of inlet and outlet water temperatures, extracted heat from test room, rejected heat to ground, compression ratio, total power consumption, and coefficient of performance (COP) values for both whole system and only CRM are obtained. Thermal properties of soil are also estimated by using experimental data and theory. Cooling load of test room and rejected heat to ground, and all COP values are also presented. Finally, heat rejection rate to ground with respect to leaving water temperature from GHE is given. The COP of the overall system changes between 2 and 2.5, also CRM COP values are in the range of 3 and 3.86. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.