Fabrication of Energy Efficient Improvised Incubator
Vandana Sharma
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, New Campus, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
Hemesh Jain Surana
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, New Campus, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
Urvasini Singh
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, New Campus, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
Pooja
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, New Campus, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
Jayashri Vajpai
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, M.B.M. Engineering College, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
Sunita Kumbhat *
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, New Campus, J.N.V. University, Jodhpur-342001, Rajasthan, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: The paper presents the design, working and testing of an energy efficient improvised incubator, a general purpose heating and cooling equipment designed to maintain a constant temperature in the range of 5ºC to 50ºC.
Study Design: Determination of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), requires maintaining the water sample at 20ºC continuously for 5 days, in an incubator resulting in high cost and extensive use of energy. Energy efficient incubators are hence the need of the industrial world. An improvised incubator is designed by scaling down the conventional incubators and incorporating voltage regulator, overload protection unit and UPS system for continuous operation during power failure.
Conclusion: The testing results indicate that the developed prototype takes only 1/6th of the time and 1/10th of energy as compared to conventional incubators.
Place of Study: The design and fabrication of the improvised incubator was conceptualized at Department of Chemistry and Department of Electrical Engineering J.N.V University, Jodhpur and fabrication was done at M/s Surana Scientifics, Jodhpur under the Instrument Development Program of DST, New Delhi.
Keywords: Design of incubator, BOD, energy efficient equipment, improvised incubator, prototype development