Patent ID: 7288904

Claim:
A centralized control device for controlling the voltage supplied to a load including a plurality of lamps provided with power factor correction capacitors, the control device being suitable for lighting engineering applications comprising: two input terminals for connection to a power supply network providing an alternating voltage, two output terminals for connection to the load, a power portion including a converter which has two bidirectional switches connected between the input terminals and the load, a first one of said bi-directional switches being connected in series with a supply input terminal for connecting the load to the supply network and the second one of said bi-directional switches being connected in parallel with the load, controlling and regulating means for managing the activation and deactivation states of said bidirectional switches, sensing means to which said controlling and regulating means are connected for measuring a voltage applied to the load, the supply network current and the supply network voltage, said controlling and regulating means automatically selecting the most correct operating procedure from among a plurality of operating procedures for different loads as a function of said voltage and current measurements.