The onset of magnetoelectroconvection in a dielectric fluid-saturated horizontal porous layer in the presence of uniform electric field and the magnetic field is investigated for various time periodic temperature modulations. The dielectric constant is assumed to be a linear function of temperature. The modified Darcy equation is used to describe the flow in a porous medium, and the resulting eigenvalue problem is solved using a regular perturbation method with small amplitude approximation. It is observed that the correction Rayleigh number decreases as the Hartmann number increases in the cases of symmetric modulation and only lower wall temperature modulation while it increases in the case of asymmetric modulation. Whereas, correction Rayleigh number increases as the electric Rayleigh number, Darcy number, and Prandtl number increase irrespective of the type of modulation. It is found that the combined effects of electric field and the magnetic field is more favorable to suppress convection significantly than in the presence of electric field alone. This result is useful in synthesizing smart and strong materials needed for much aeronautical, automobile, and biomedical engineering applications to minimize the weight and maximize the strength to achieve the sufficient dynamic advantages. © 2018 by Begell House, Inc.