Patent ID: 7116009

Claim:
A power distributing apparatus comprising: a power source part for supplying power of a high voltage; an upstream-side power distributing part connected with the power source part through a power line thereby to accept power supply of the high voltage from the power source part; a plurality of downstream-side power distributing parts connected with the upstream-side power distributing part through power lines thereby to accept power supply from the upstream-side power distributing part and supply power of a load voltage to a plurality of loads; a regular-supply converter disposed in the upstream-side power distributing part and also connected to the plurality of downstream-side power distributing parts to convert the high voltage to an intermediate voltage lower than the high voltage and higher than the load voltage, the regular-supply converter capable of converting a voltage with a high conversion efficiency when the power distributing apparatus is operated under high load; a stand-by current supply converter disposed in the upstream-side power distributing part and also connected only to one or more of the downstream-side power distributing parts for supplying a stand-by current to convert the high voltage to the intermediate voltage, the stand-by current supply converter capable of converting a voltage with a high conversion efficiency when the power distributing apparatus is operated under light load; a plurality of series regulators respectively disposed in the downstream-side power distributing parts to convert the intermediate voltage to the load voltage; and further comprising a current sensor for detecting a current flowing from the upstream-side power distributing part to the downstream-side power distributing parts and a controller for controlling the operations of the regular-supply converter and the stand-by current supply converter; wherein, under condition that the power distributing apparatus is mounted on a vehicle having an ignition switch, the controller operates so as to activate the regular-supply converter thereby to carry out the power supply when the ignition switch is turned off and a current value detected by the current sensor is more than a predetermined value.