In heat balance calorimetry, the cooling/heating jacket controls the temperature of the process. Heat is measured by monitoring the heat gained or lost by the heat transfer fluid.
where
: 	= process heating (or cooling) power (W)
: 	= mass flow of heat transfer fluid (kg/s)
: 	= specific heat of heat transfer fluid (J/(kg K))
: 	= inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid (K)		
: 	= outlet temperature of heat transfer fluid (K)
Heat balance calorimetry is, in principle, the ideal method of measuring heat since the heat entering and leaving the system through the heating/cooling jacket is measured from the heat transfer fluid (which has known properties). This eliminates most of the calibration problems encountered by heat flow and power compensation calorimetry. Unfortunately, the method does not work well in traditional batch vessels since the process heat signal is obscured by large heat shifts in the cooling/heating jacket.