Saturated nucleate boiling experiments of HCFC-123 along a 0.13 mm diameter platinum wire with an applied uniform electric held were conducted. High-speed video imaging was used to measure the average number density of active nucleation sites, the average bubble departure frequency per nucleation site, and the frequency distribution of bubble departure diameters. At a given heat flux, application of an electric field increases the natural convection contribution to the total heat flux, while the latent heat and forced convection contributions are reduced, due to reductions in the number of active nucleation sites and the average bubble departure diameter. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.