The use of nanofluids as secondary coolants in vapor compression refrigeration systems was numerically studied. A simulation model for a liquid-towater heat pump, with reciprocating compressor and straight double-tube condenser and evaporator was studied. The multi-zone method was employed in the modeling of the heat exchangers. By their turn, the two-phase regions of both condenser and evaporator were discretized to take into account the local variation of the refrigerant condensing and boiling heat transfer coefficients. In the condenser two-phase region, the local heat transfer coefficient was determined as a function of the governing two-phase flow regime. The nanofluid was supposed to flow through the inner circular section of the evaporator, while the refrigerant was left to the annular passage. A computational program, based on EES (Engineering Equation Solver) package, was developed to solve the resulting non-linear system of algebraic equations. Different nanoparticles (Cu, Al2O3, CuO and TiO2) were studied for different volumetric concentrations and particle diameters. Simulation results have shown that, for a given refrigerating capacity, evaporator area and refrigerant-side pressure drop are reduced when: (i) the volumetric concentration of nanoparticles and nanofluid temperature increase; (ii) the diameter of nanoparticles decrease. Also, nanofluid-side pressure drop and, consequently, pumping power, increase with nanoparticle volumetric concentration and decrease with nanoparticle diameter and nanofluid temperature. Results from a typical case-study indicated an evaporator area reduction of up to 6%, with the use of nanofluids as secondary coolant, if compared to the conventional base-fluid (H2O).