This paper reports on a mode of analysis of semi-adiabatic relaxation data allowing to account for exotic phenomena sometimes observed in first-order transitions. The principal interest is to get a detailed characterization of the latent heat while using the same experimental configuration as that employed for accurate heat capacity measurements outside the transition. Special attention is paid to the recalescence/antirecalescence effects as well as to the existence of spikes in the time-dependent exchange of latent heat. The present approach -based on the notion of "power of latent heat"-is shown to be consistent with differential scanning calorimetry, magnetization measurements and the usual analysis in terms of heat capacity. The study is carried out on a LaFe 10.77 Si 1.23 Co 0.28 compound which belongs to one of the most promising families of giant magnetocaloric materials.
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