The thermodynamic design procedure for solid adsorption solar refrigeration is presented and applied to systems using activated carbon/methanol, activated carbon/ammonia and zeolite/water adsorbent/adsorbate pairs. The results obtained showed that zeolite/water is the best pair for air conditioning application while activated carbon/ammonia is preferred for ice making, deep freezing and food preservation. In all cases, the system depends strongly on adsorption and condensation temperatures and weakly on the evaporator temperature. The maximum possible net solar COP was found to be 0.3, 0.19 and 0.16 for zeolite/water, activated carbon/ammonia and activated carbon/methanol, respectively, when a conventional flat plate solar collector is used. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.