Simultaneous production of fresh water and refrigeration are often required, e.g. in warm-climate water-deficient regions, and this study is a proposal and analysis of an efficient way of producing both of them by consuming mainly low-grade heat. After introducing the configuration choice methodology, a combined refrigeration and water system, ARHP-MEE (absorption refrigeration heat pump and multi-effect evaporation desalter), which is the integration of a LiBr-H2O refrigeration unit, a LiBr-H2O heat pump, and a low-temperature multi-effect evaporation desalination unit, is proposed, and the mathematical model is presented and validated. The model serves for conducting a performance analysis of the combined system, reported in Part 2 of this two-part paper. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.