Patent ID: 7109448

Claim:
A cooking appliance comprising: a cabinet including top, bottom rear and opposing side walls; a cooking chamber including top, bottom, rear and opposing side walls and a frontal opening; a door movably mounted relative to the cooking chamber for selectively closing the frontal opening; a heating device provided in the cabinet for performing a portion of a cooking operation, said heating device having a power rating which is substantially oversized relative to a desired maximum power output; and a control system for regulating an intensity of the heating device during a cooking operation to achieve a selected cooking temperature by altering an AC waveform provided to the heating device, said control system including a triac, as well as a controller for turning on the triac at select points in the AC waveform to create a delay from a zero point crossing of the AC waveform, thereby altering an amount of power sent to the heating device such that the desired maximum power output is obtained, whereby the control system enables the cooking appliance to operate with varying voltages with the control system regulating the heating device to achieve the selected cooking temperature by chopping the AC waveform through the triac as needed to establish the desired maximum power output.