Patent ID: 8123490

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling an electric compressor which drives the compressor constituting an air conditioner by using a motor, characterized in that processing performed by the apparatus comprises: processing for avoiding motor overload caused by a pressure difference of a refrigerant between the inlet side and the outlet side of the compressor by keeping the number of revolutions of the motor not higher than a preset first number of revolutions when the actuation of the motor is started; and processing for increasing the number of revolutions of the motor to a second number of revolutions not lower than the first number of revolutions, wherein, in the processing for avoiding motor overload caused by the pressure difference of the refrigerant, a rate of rise S 1 of the number of revolutions of said motor is set lower than a rate of rise S 2 of the number of revolutions of said motor in the processing for increasing the number of revolutions of said motor to the second number of revolutions, and said apparatus further performs processing for monitoring whether a current supplied to drive said motor exceeds a preset threshold value, immediately after the actuation of said motor is started, the number of revolutions of said motor is increased at a rate of rise S 3 higher than the rate of rise S 1 of the number of revolutions of said motor in said processing for avoiding motor overload caused by the pressure difference of said refrigerant, and in said processing for monitoring the current supplied to drive the motor, when the current exceeds the preset threshold value, said processing shifts to said processing for avoiding motor overload caused by the pressure difference of said refrigerant.