Patent ID: 7492557

Claim:
An electric apparatus comprising: a switching device, including a switch drive control unit; and a switching mechanism unit, including: a yoke around which a coil is wound, an operating member that is manually movable by a person to an ON position and to an OFF position, a permanent magnet that is movable between the ON position and the OFF position, the permanent magnet being in contact with or in the vicinity of the yoke when the operating member is at the ON position, and being separated from the yoke when the operating member is at the OFF position, a switching member that connects and disconnects a power feed line when the operating member is at the ON position or the OFF position, and a biasing unit that urges the operating member toward the OFF position, wherein: the operating member is held at the ON position by an attractive force of the permanent magnet and the yoke against the urging force of the biasing unit when the permanent magnet is at the ON position, the yoke is magnetized to reduce magnetic force of the permanent magnet when the coil is energized by the switch drive control unit, and the operating member and the switching member are moved from the ON position to the OFF position by the urging force of the biasing unit, thereby disconnecting the power feed line, the electric apparatus further including: an external power supply introducing outlet being formed on a housing of the electric apparatus, a device power supply unit being provided to generate operating power from power supplied from an external power source and to supply the operating power to various internal circuits, a power supply line between the external power supply introducing outlet and the device power supply unit being the feed line, the switching mechanism unit being disposed on the power supply line, the switch drive control unit comprising at least a leakage detecting unit that determines whether there is leakage due to the feed line or a load that is fed via the feed line, the switch drive control unit energizing the coil so as to disconnect the feed line, when the leakage detecting unit detects leakage.