In secondary cooling of continuous casting, it is very important to know the cooling heat flux for the actual spray cooling situation with respect to various parameters like the local position, the nozzle types, distances, and the water and air flow rates, to be able to control the cooling conditions precisely. As heat flux measurements on a casting machine are too challenging, experimental laboratory test rigs are designed and used for measurements by different research groups. Therefore, metal probes of different dimensions and materials are heated up to the desired temperature and then exposed to spray nozzles. The heat flux is usually measured by temperature sensors immersed in the probe body, and then determined from the measured temperature using inverse modelling methods. Herein, the differences between the real and laboratory conditions are focused on using a mathematical heat transfer simulation model. The influence of strand surface temperature, nozzle spray water flow conditions, and Leidenfrost effect are pointed out. A procedure to use heatflux data measured on a test rig for cooling control on a real caster despite the different conditions is proposed.