Single pan thermal analyses (SPTA) have been performed on Cu-14.5 wt.% Sn, Cu-21.3 wt.% Sri and Cu-26.8 wt.% Sit peritectic alloys. For this purpose, a SPTA assembly has been built and calibrated. As the latent heat is a function of temperature and composition during solidification of alloys, a new heat flow model coupled to a Cu-Sn thermodynamic database has been defined for the calculation of the corresponding evolutions of the solid mass fraction, f(s)(T). To verify the accuracy of this model, a close comparison with a micro-segregation model that includes back-diffusion in the primary alpha-solid phase has also been conducted successfully. The thermal analyses have finally shown that the Cu-Sn phase diagram recently assessed in the review of Liu et al. is the most reliable. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.