Patent ID: 6982888

Claim:
A method of measuring the electrical consumption absorbed by a load connected to an AC-DC converter, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a voltage converter with input terminals, the voltage converter including a series circuit between the input terminals, the series circuit including a switching element and a capacitor, the voltage of the capacitor supplying an output voltage of the converter; (b) a control circuit applying a control voltage to a control input of the switching element to control a conducting state and a non-conducting state of the switching element, said control being based upon input and/or output voltage thresholds; (c) connecting the load to the voltage converter so that the output voltage of the voltage converter is supplied to the load; (d) measuring at least one of: the time duration between rising and falling edges of the control voltage; the output voltage of the voltage converter when an edge of the control voltage occurs; and (e) calculating the electrical consumption using said duration or voltage data.