This paper describes the development of a numerical algorithm and a graphical method that can be employed in order to determine the overall heat transfer coefficient inside heat exchangers. The method is based on an energy balance and utilizes the spreadsheet application software Microsoft ExcelTM. The application is demonstrated in an example for designing a single pass shell and tube heat exchanger that was developed in the Department of Materials Technology of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) where water vapor is superheated by a secondary oil cycle. This approach can be used to reduce the number of hardware iterations in heat exchanger design.