Because China is actively promoting island-reef construction, research on low-energy building design in island-reef are as with a special climate has received much attention recently. The convective heat transfer coefficient(CHTC) at an exterior building surface is crucial for calculating the air-conditioning load precisely. This study explores the applicability and feasibility of the naphthalene sublimation technique in island-reef areas. First, a field survey on testing the environment in island-reef areas was performed, indicating an experimental scheme in this area should be as simple as possible. Subsequently, the naphthalene sublimation technique, in which experimental devices possessed the advantages of easy operation and convenient carry, was adopted to measure CHTC in this area. Finally, the effect of measuring parameters on CHTC results and the error level throughout the experiment were analyzed. Results showed that the relationship between CHTC and wind speed was CHTC = 5.56 + 4.48u (where CHTC is W/m2·K and u is m/s), with a high correlation coefficient square of 0.94. Additionally, the CHTC predictive formula was reliable, with a mean percentage error of 2.50%for estimating CHTC sin island-reef areas. More-over, the reliability of CHTC testing results was almost imper-vious to outdoor environment in island-reef areas. Furthermore, based on the error propagation theory, the overall uncertainty of CHTC in the experiment was merely 5.4%, ensuring the accuracy of experimental results. This study contributes to popularizing the simplified CHTC testing method and achieving a reasonable CHTC in island-reef areas.