Electrical leak detecting apparatus

• US 6,977,518 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2003
• Issued: 12/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Asahi Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Minami, Yoji, Saito, Toshiaki, Higashihama, Hirotada, Soshin, Koji, Usui, Hisashi
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, PARESH H
• Application Number:
  US10/694,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20040227521A1
• Time in Patent Office: 783 Days
• Field of Search: 324/771, 324/763, 324/158.1
• US Class Current: 324/764.01
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/40 Testing power supplies testing photovoltaic devices H02S50/10
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/52 Testing for short-circuits, leakage current or ground faults

Abstract

An electrical leak detecting apparatus for detecting electrical leak of a power supply device includes two voltage division elements which have an identical impedance value and are connected to each other in series between input terminals or output terminals of a DC/AC conversion circuit of the power supply device, a detection element which has one end connected to a junction of the voltage division elements, a capacitor which is inserted between the other end of the detection element and ground and a decision member which receives a voltage drop across the detection element as a detection signal and processes the detection signal so as to judge occurrence of the electrical leak.

Claims

1. An electrical leak detecting apparatus that detects an electrical leak of a power supply device including a DC/DC conversion circuit in which a DC voltage supplied from a DC power supply is chopped and boosted to a desired level by an insulated transformer so as to be outputted through its rectification and smoothing and a DC/AC conversion circuit that converts the DC voltage outputted from the DC/DC conversion circuit into an AC voltage, the power supply device being operable electrically insulated from ground so as to supply the AC voltage to a load, the electrical leak detecting apparatus comprising:

two voltage division elements which have an identical impedance value and which are connected to each other in series between one of input terminals and output terminals of the DC/AC conversion circuit;

a detection element which has one end connected to a junction of the two voltage division elements;

a capacitor which is inserted between an other end of the detection element and ground, that isolates the electrical leak detecting apparatus from ground;

a decider which receives a voltage drop across the detection element as a detection signal and processes the detection signal to judge an occurrence of the electrical leak.

2. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the voltage division elements is formed by a capacitor.

3. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the decider includes a decision unit for judging an occurrence of the electrical leak in one zone by comparing an effective value of the AC voltage included in the detection signal with a predetermined threshold value and a further decision unit for judging occurrence of the electrical leak in a further zone by comparing an effective value of a frequency component equal to a chopping frequency included in the detection signal with a further predetermined threshold value.

4. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage division elements comprise a capacitor,

wherein the decider includes

at least one of a decision unit for detecting the electrical leak in one zone by comparing an effective value of the AC voltage included in the detection signal with a predetermined threshold value and a further decision unit for detecting the electrical leak in a further zone by comparing an effective value of a frequency component equal to a chopping frequency included in the detection signal with a further predetermined threshold value, and

a still further decision unit for judging an occurrence of the electrical leak in a still further zone by comparing a DC component included in the detection signal with a still further predetermined threshold value corresponding to a polarity.

5. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage division elements are connected between the output terminals of the DC/AC conversion circuit and the voltage division elements and the detection elements each comprise a capacitor.

6. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising;

a communicator that transmits a decision result of the decider to an external component via a communication medium.

7. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising;

a communicator that transmits a decision result of the decider to an external component via a communication medium.

8. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising;

a communicator that transmits a decision result of the decider to an external component via a communication medium.

9. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a switch member that one of opens and closes a power supply path from the DC/AC conversion circuit to the load;

wherein the decider judges an occurrence of the electrical leak in a no-load state of the power supply device by opening the switch member prior to a start of a supply of power from the power supply device to the load.

10. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

a switch member for opening or closing a power supply path from the DC/AC conversion circuit to the load;

wherein the decider judges an occurrence of the electrical leak in a no-load state of the power supply device by opening the switch member prior to start of power supply from the power supply device to the load.

11. The electrical leak detecting apparatus as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

a switch member for opening or closing a power supply path from the DC/AC conversion circuit to the load;

wherein the decider judges an occurrence of the electrical leak in a no-load state of the power supply device by opening the switch member prior to start of power supply from the power supply device to the load.