Technological processes in food industry require chilling agent. System of chillers can be driven by non-renewable or renewable sources. In the group of renewable sources solar collectors seem to be an attractive solution both as the basic or the auxiliary power source for adsorption refrigerators. The common tool for the evaluation of the refrigerator systems used in practice is the energy effectiveness expresses as the COP (coefficient of performance). In the case of energy systems with energy fluxes of different parameters or supplied partly with renewable and non-renewable sources such evaluation is not enough. The authors proposed the method of exergetic evaluation. In the paper the comparison of the exergetic effectiveness and thermoecological cost of an example refrigeration system existing in Polish food industry supplied with heat alternatively from boiler house, cogeneration system and heat from solar collectors is presented. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.