A new prototype of thermoelectric egg incubator integrated with thermal energy storage and photovoltaic panels.

The purpose of this study is to develop a thermoelectric egg incubator (TEI) integrated with a thermal energy storage (TES) system, using electricity from photovoltaic (PV) cells in order to operate without on-grid electricity. The TEI was constructed with the same dimensions as a commercial egg incubator (CEI), which was made to the required dimensions for hatching 24 eggs per period of 21 days. The TEI was designed with 2 operating modes of heat sources: a thermoelectric (TE) module used for daytime operation and a TES containing phasechange materials (PCM) which supplied heat to the TEI for nighttime operation. The PV panels were designed to be the primary energy source for generating 360 W of electricity, which was supplied to heat sources of TEI according to the energy load for providing fertile chicken eggs (24 eggs/hatching). The incubating temperature and relative humidity (RH) inside the TEI-TES were controlled under optimum environmental conditions for hatching (36-39°C and 60-80% RH) to stimulate embryonic growth. As a result, the TEI-TES achieved and maintained an optimum incubating temperature in the range of 36.7-38.8°C and the correct RH of 66±0.2 % in the warm weather of Thailand over the incubating period of 21 days. The TEI-TES was able to maintain optimum environmental conditions for chicken-egg hatching, and its performance was comparable to that of the CEI. The working mechanisms of the TE module and TES are also discussed. The results show that the TEI-TES with PV panels as the primary energy source is suitable for use in remote areas which have no on-grid electricity supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]