Patent ID: 9564848
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: F24F,H02M,H02P,Y02B

Claim:
1. A power converter comprising: a rectifier configured to rectify an input alternate current from an AC power source; a power factor corrector configured to perform a power factor correction operation on an input voltage output from the rectifier; a power converter connected to an output of the power factor corrector, and configured to generate output AC power; and a controller configured to control the power factor correction operation by the power factor corrector and a detector configured to detect input current flowing into the power factor corrector for a predetermined period, wherein the controller is configured to turn on the power factor corrector and cause the power factor corrector to perform the power factor correction operation if a parameter value, which is calculated by the controller from the detected input current flowing into the power factor corrector, is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and turn off the power factor corrector and cause the power factor corrector to stop the power factor correction operation if the parameter value is smaller than or equal to a second threshold below the first threshold; and through a predetermined time period from a moment when the power factor corrector is switched either from on to off, or from off to on, the controller is configured to maintain a state of the switched power factor corrector regardless of the parameter value, the controller is configured to stop maintaining the state of the switched power factor corrector after the predetermined time period has elapsed, and the predetermined time period is longer than the predetermined period.