The heat load in a thermoacoustic refrigeration demonstration device is studied. In the demo, which acts only to create a low temperature at the position of a thermocouple, the only heat load is nuisance heat, which is not well known. The method described here for estimating experimentally the size of this heat load assumes that heat transport associated with acoustics depends on acoustic amplitude p and on the magnitude of the deviation from ambient temperature |ΔT|, but is independent of the sign of ΔT. That is, the heat load due to acoustics-induced transport is taken to have the form Q̇transport=-F(p)ΔT, where F(p) is some function of p only, and ΔT can be either positive (refrigerator) or negative (heater). Direct thermoviscous heating at the site of the thermocouple Q̇tv(p) is also a function of p only. At steady state, Q̇heater=F(p)ΔT-Q̇tv(p). In the experiment, the refrigeration stack is replaced by an electric heater, the power of which is easily measured. The steady−state temperature rise above ambient ΔT is measured as a function of heater power and acoustic amplitude. The experiment generates a family of straight lines, the slopes of which determine the function F(p), and the intercepts give Q̇tv. [Work supported by ONR and NSF.]