Purpose: This study aims to elucidate the role of curved walls in the presence of identical mass of porous bed with identical heating at a wall for two heating objectives: enhancement of heat transfer to fluid saturated porous beds and reduction of entropy production for thermal and flow irreversibilities. Design/methodology/approach: Two heating configurations have been proposed: Case 1: isothermal heating at bottom straight wall with cold side curved walls and Case 2: isothermal heating at left straight wall with cold horizontal curved walls. Galerkin finite element method is used to obtain the streamfunctions and heatfunctions associated with local entropy generation terms. Findings: The flow and thermal maps show significant variation from Case 1 to Case 2 arrangements. Case 1 configuration may be the optimal strategy as it offers larger heat transfer rates at larger values of Darcy number, Dam. However, Case 2 may be the optimal strategy as it provides moderate heat transfer rates involving savings on entropy production at larger values of Dam. On the other hand, at lower values of Dam (Dam ≤ 10−3), Case 1 or 2 exhibits almost similar heat transfer rates, while Case 1 is preferred for savings of entropy production. Originality/value: The concave wall is found to be effective to enhance heat transfer rates to promote convection, while convex wall exhibits reduction of entropy production rate. Comparison between Case 1 and Case 2 heating strategies enlightens efficient heating strategies involving concave or convex walls for various values of Dam. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.