Patent ID: 8488346

Claim:
A power conversion apparatus comprising: a first switch connected at both ends of an AC power supply through an inductor and capacitor connected in series, which conducts when a pulse signal turns on, and becomes nonconductive when a pulse signal turns off; a second switch connected at both ends of the first switch through a smoothing capacitor connected in series, which conducts when the pulse signal turns on, and becomes nonconductive when the pulse signal turns off; an oscillator which generates a clock signal; an input voltage detector which detects a voltage of the AC power supply as an input voltage; a circuit current detector which detects a circuit current flowing through the inductor; an output voltage detector which detects a voltage at both ends of the smoothing capacitor as an output voltage; a rated current value determinator which determines a peak value of a circuit current in each pulse cycle, from a corrected output voltage by subtracting a predetermined reference voltage from an output voltage detected by the output voltage detector, and an input voltage detected by the input voltage detector; and a pulse signal output unit which outputs a pulse signal, which turns on in synchronization with a clock signal applied from the oscillator, keeps on until a circuit current detected by the circuit current detector reaches the peak value, turns off when the circuit current reaches the peak value, and thereafter, turns on again in synchronization with the next clock signal, to the first switch when the polarity of the input voltage is positive, and to the second switch when the polarity of the input voltage is negative.