Abstract: A cooking appliance with touch pad controls is protected against inadvertent turning of a cooking facility such as a hob ring to full power by a spillage on an UP pad (increase temperature). A control circuit turns the facility off if the UP pad signals that it is touched for longer than say 5-7 seconds. Similarly a warning can be given if a DOWN pad remains touched too long, to prevent inadvertent turning off of a facility.

Abstract: A power control apparatus uses a digital electronic counter to gate a triac for controlling the current supplied to a load. The preferred arrangement is that each of 10 possible counts achievable by the counter corresponds to a particular rate of current supply to the load. The counter may be caused to count up or count down by means of proximity switches mounted on a control panel and optionally includes a reset input. The control panel comprises an insulating glass plate having three pairs of electrodes thereon with the electrodes of each pair being mounted on opposite faces of the plate, each pair of electrodes being associated with a respective one of the count-up, count-down and reset inputs of the counter, the pair associated with the reset input being shaped to surround in the respective plane of the plate the other two electrodes on that surface of the plate.