Abstract |
Electrical energy is generally used for heat source on infant incubator. The infant incubator operation is dependent on electrical energy. Infant incubator is primary required by hospital patients particularly for the mother who just giving birth the premature infant. When electrical energy is shutdown, the infant incubator cannot operate to fulfill that need. The solution is by creating new technology to look for material, which is capable to keep the heat energy to warm the infant body if there is no electrical source. Paraffin and beeswax are phase change materials (PCMs) that are able to give heat energy to warm up infant incubator. Paraffin and beeswax have high latent heat to keep and release the heat at constant temperature. This study was focused on the utilization of the comparison of paraffin and beeswax materials as the sources of heat energy on infant incubator. The results showed that the PCMs can maintain heat energy at the temperature above 32°C for more than 8 hours in the infant incubator room. However, it was observed that beeswax performed better in heat energy storage than paraffin. This study suggests the utilization of beeswax as the PCM for infant incubator, and possibly for any other practical application. |