An experimental system is built to investigate convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of the nanofluid in a tube. Both the convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor of Cu-water nanofluid for the laminar and turbulent flow are measured. The effects of such factors as the volume fraction of suspended nanoparticles and the Reynolds number on the heat transfer and flow characteristics are discussed in detail. The experimental results show that the suspended nanoparticles remarkably increase the convective heat transfer coefficient of the base fluid and show that the friction factor of the sample nanofluid with the low volume fraction of nanoparticles is almost not changed. Compared with the base fluid, for example, the convective heat transfer coefficient is increased about 60% for the nanofluid with 2.0 vol% Cu nanoparticles at the same Reynolds number. Considering the factors affecting the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nano- fluid, a new convective heat transfer correlation for nanofluid under single-phase flows in tubes is established. Comparison between the experimental data and the calculated results indicate that the correlation describes correctly the energy transport of the nanofluid.