Heat Flow from Thermal Resistance
Worked example: 22 K across 0.066 K/W → 333.3 W. Press Try an example to run it live, then adjust anything.
Enter your known values, leave one input blank, and solves for the missing one. Tap a variable’s symbol to see what it means, with a typical value. Change any unit and the answer follows.
Where Heat Flow from Thermal Resistance fits
See also
Conduction Through a Pipe Wall: Both use heat flow rate and temperature difference.Fin Heat Transfer Rate: Both use heat flow rate and temperature difference.Heat Loss Through an Assembly (Q = A·ΔT/R): Both use heat flow rate and temperature difference.Newton's Law of Cooling (Q = hAΔT): Both use heat flow rate and temperature difference.Convection Film Resistance: Both use total thermal resistance.Overall U from Total Resistance: Both use total thermal resistance.5 more related
Thermal Resistance of a Plane Wall: Both use total thermal resistance.Thermal Resistances in Series: Both use total thermal resistance.Net Radiation Exchange Between Surfaces: Both use heat flow rate.Glycol Loop Heat Transfer (Capacity Derate): Both use heat flow rate.Hydronic Heat Transfer (Water): Both use heat flow rate.From R to U →
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Heat Flow from Thermal Resistance explained
This is the payoff of the whole resistance network: once you have added up the layers, the heat flow is just ΔT over R, the exact analogue of I = V/R. A wall assembly totalling 0.066 K/W with 22 K across it passes 22/0.066 = 333 W, and no further physics is required. The same equation run backwards is how a thermal engineer sizes an enclosure: an electronics box dissipating 40 W that may only rise 25 K above ambient needs the path from junction to air to be under 0.625 K/W, total, including the heatsink and the interface pad.
Because resistances are additive and heat flow is not, the intermediate temperatures come free: the drop across any single layer is Q̇ × R for that layer alone. That is how you check whether a wall's dew point falls inside the insulation or safely outside it, and how a plant engineer proves the fouled side of an exchanger is the tube interior rather than the shell. Trap: ΔT here is a difference, so 40 °F of difference is 22.2 K, not 4.4. The calculator handles the conversion, but the arithmetic in your notebook may not.
Heat Flow from Thermal Resistance formula
- = Heat flow rate (W)
- = Temperature difference (C°)
- = Total thermal resistance (K/W)
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formula.expert. (2026, October 16). Heat Flow from Thermal Resistance Formula & Calculator. https://formula.expert/solvers/heat-flow-from-thermal-resistance