This study is concerned with a new adaptive boundary element method based on sample-point error analysis for thermoelasticity under steady-state heat conduction. Mathematical formulations of the adaptive boundary element method are presented in detail for two-dimensional thermoelasticity. This scheme of adaptive meshing makes use of only the residual between the interpolated and calculated solutions as an error indicator. Adaptive boundary element analysis can be performed by simultaneously checking the 'displacement error indicator' and the 'temperature error indicator'. The h-and p-version mesh refinements based on this scheme are applied to some typical examples, and the usefulness of the proposed adaptive BEM is demonstrated through discussion of the results obtained.