An experimental apparatus and a numerical method are presented to study the determination of both the location and the time-varying strength of point heat sources within a body from temperature boundary measurements. It is shown that the computed solutions of the inverse heat source problems (IHSPs) are correlated to the heat transfer coefficient on the boundary where the temperature sensors are located. The same algorithm is used to determine this coefficient as a function of temperature. It consists in solving a non-linear inverse heat conduction problem for two-dimensional heat flow. The computed solutions of the inverse problems obtained from the temperature histories measured by four thermocouples are compared to the experimental data. The case of two-point sources is also considered. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.