This article deals with analyzing the effect of radiative heat transfer on natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity under normal room conditions. The governing equations of natural convection and radiative transfer are solved simultaneously to obtain the temperature, velocity and heat flux distributions inside the participating medium. The finite volume method has been adopted to solve the governing equations and the discrete ordinates method (DOM) is used to model the radiative transfer in absorbing -emitting media. The radiative-convective model is validated by comparison with test cases solutions from the literature. Then, the effects of Rayleigh number from 10(2) to 10(6) and optical thickness in a broad range from 0 to 100 on temperature and velocity distributions and Nusselt numbers are investigated. The results show that even under normal room conditions with a low temperature difference, the radiation plays a significant role on temperature distribution and flow pattern in the cavity. Also, several interesting effects of radiation are observed such as a sweep behavior on the isotherms, streamlines and velocity distributions of the cavity along the optical thickness and a reverse behavior on maximum stream function and convective Nusselt number at different Rayleigh numbers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.