Monitoring faults in the heating circuit of an appliance

Abstract

A household appliance has a heating circuit () for heating a fluid including a heating element () that can be selectively energized () to determine the heating of the fluid, and a monitoring unit () for monitoring the operation of the heating circuit. The monitoring unit () is configured to monitor at least one electrical potential internal to the heating circuit (). The at least one electric potential internal to the heating circuit () is at least one among: an internal electric potential detected at a first terminal () of the heating element () connected to an on/off switch () of the heating circuit (); an internal electric potential detected at a second terminal () of the heating element () connected to a main switch () of the appliance or to a safety switch provided for switching the heating circuit off in case of malfunction of the on/off switch (). The monitoring unit () is further configured for: detecting a value of the voltage of the electricity distribution network; and calculating, starting from the detected value of the voltage of the electricity distribution network, first and a second reference electric potentials, comparing the at least one detected internal electric potential with the first and second reference electric potentials; recognizing a state of good operation or malfunction of the heating circuit () in case the at least one detected internal electric potential does not fall within a range of values between the first and second reference electric potentials.