Patent ID: 7368688

Claim:
An apparatus for sensing load of an electric cooker, comprising: a heater unit including an induction heating coil and an electric heater; a load-type determination unit that determines a type of a cooking vessel; a load-state determination unit that determines whether the cooking vessel is placed on top of the heater unit; a heater driving determination unit that determines whether to operate the induction heating coil or the electric heater in response to determination signals of the load-type determination unit and the load-state determination unit; a heater driving unit that operates the induction heating coil or the electric heater in response to a decision of the heater driving determination unit; and a resonance unit that allows a resonance current to flow into the induction heating coil when the heater driving unit operates the induction heating coil, wherein the load-type determination unit comprises: a first determination unit that determines whether a cooking vessel placed on top of the heater unit is a metallic load or a non-metallic load by an input current flowing in a line of an alternating current power source when the induction heating coil is driven; and a second determination unit that determines whether the cooking vessel placed on top of the heater unit is a magnetic load or a non-magnetic load by a resonance current flowing into the induction heating coil when the induction coil is driven.