Patent ID: 8144440

Claim:
An electric appliance comprising: an appliance main body for employing an AC power supply; a power supply unit provided in said main body, and connected to input said AC power supply for outputting a DC supply voltage and a AC supply voltage to said appliance main body; wherein said power supply unit includes: a power supply circuit for converting the input AC power supply voltage into the DC power supply voltage, which is electrically insulated from said AC power supply; a relay for turning ON and OFF a supply of the AC power supply voltage to the appliance main body; and an earth leakage sensing circuit provided between a contact point of said relay and said appliance main body, for detecting earth leakage occurred in said appliance main body to turn OFF said relay, wherein the appliance main body includes a control unit for controlling the electric appliance, and said control unit operates with the DC voltage applied from the power supply unit when the relay is both ON and OFF, and controls the supply of the DC voltage to both the relay and the earth leakage sensing circuit thereby selectively providing and interrupting DC power supplied to both the relay and the earth leakage sensing circuit.