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Originally Posted by Incoherent
The implication being that any conductor of heat will also conduct electricity?
Not the case as I am sure you are aware.
Heat transfer in non-metallic solids can get pretty quantum mechanical, but suffice to say that movement of electrons is not the only way to shift heat. Although it is the most efficient way to do it.
Cheers
Incoherent
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Heat conduction from electrons is quantum mechanical. The heat is transfered when the electrons jump between energy bands in atoms, all of which are governed by that nasty wave equation no one can seem to solve. Jump up a level and you decrease the thermal energy of that atom (or at least you decrease the thermal energy somewhere nearby). Jump down and you increase it.
Electrical insulators that conduct heat do exist, however the mechanism is quite a bit easier to understand, basically tightly bound atoms vibrate in sync with each other. Thus one you heat one you effectively heat the other atoms connected to it and the energy passes very quickly as a phonon vibration or something like that.
At least those are the two types of thermal conduction mechanisms I'm familar with. There may be others.