Re: why 4 Ohms in PARALLEL with trigger coil primary?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>



> 
> As for the Fan vs Lamp control...while I don't have my ring binder here at
> the office with my notes, I seem to recall that Terry compared one against
> the other and found the fan control more robust. And the cost is essentially
> close.

Fan controls are designed to drive inductive loads (i.e. a PSC or shaded
pole induction motor).  The big change is that they typically have some
form of snubber/choke in the power circuitry.  They also use a different
TRIAC with somewhat different characteristics.

For what it's worth, about 5 years ago, I engaged in a long session of
testing virtually every (cheap) light dimmer and fan controller on the
market for my (at that time) employer.  We found that Lutron has the market
pretty much tied up.  Even Leviton (which is the dominant player in high
end switches, receptacles, etc.) admits that Lutron, because they target
that niche, can do a better job for a given amount of money.