The Applied Engineering and Technology-1 group (AET-1) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) conducted the proof-of-concept tests of SolarSPOT LLC's solar thermal Temperature-Clipper, or T-CLIP TM under controlled thermal conditions using a thermal conditioning unit (TCU) and a custom made environmental chamber. The passive T-CLIP TM is a plumbing apparatus that attaches to a solar thermal collector to limit working fluid temperature and to prevent overheating, since overheating may lead to

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... arious accident scenarios. The goal of the current research was to evaluate the ability of the T-CLIP TM to control the working fluid temperature by using its passive cooling mechanism (i.e. thermosiphon, or natural circulation) in a small-scale solar thermal system. The assembled environmental chamber that is thermally controlled with the TCU allows one to simulate the various possible weather conditions, which the solar system will encounter. The performance of the T-CLIP TM was tested at two different target temperatures: 1) room temperature (70 °F) and 2) an elevated temperature (130 °F). The current test campaign demonstrated that the T-CLIP TM was able to prevent overheating by thermosiphon induced cooling in a small-scale solar thermal system. This is an important safety feature in situations where the pump is turned off due to malfunction or power outages.