A comparative thermodynamic study of the vapour absorption refrigeration systems (VARS) working with HFC134a and HCFC22 is presented. Due to its superior performance in HCFC22-based VARS, dimethyl acetamide is chosen as the solvent for both the refrigerants. It is observed that the HCFC22-based system yields significantly better COP than the HFC134a system. However, since the latter operates at lower pressures, the possibility exists to improve its COP by resorting to two-stage operation.