This research study mainly deals with a comprehensive thermodynamic modeling and thermo-economic optimization of an irreversible absorption heat pump. For the optimization goal, various objective functions are considered comprising the specific heating load, coefficient of performance (COP) and the thermo-economic benchmark (F). In order to specify the optimum design variables, non-dominant sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) is applied satisfying some restrictions. In this optimization study, all three objective functions (e.g. COP, F and specific heating load) are maximized. In addition, decision making is carried out using three well-suited approaches namely LINAMP and TOPSIS and FUZZY. Finally, sensitivity analysis and error analysis are conducted in order to improve understanding of the system performance. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.