The workpiece temperature in cylindrical plunge grinding is considered as a superposition of a base temperature and an interference zone temperature. A solution for the transient base temperature distribution is derived. A two-part experiment for determining thermal effects is described. The heat transfer coefficient at the workpiece surface is measured in the first part, and specific grinding energy and workpiece temperature are measured in the second part. The energy entering the workpiece during grinding is determined from the base temperature solution and experimental data. Results obtained with several grinding fluids and application systems are presented. The energy entering the workpiece was found to be 75 to 85 percent of the total grinding energy during dry grinding and 25 to 35 percent during wet grinding.