Editing Saturable reactor (section)

==Design considerations==
Saturable reactors provide a very simple means to remotely and proportionally control the AC through a load such as an [[incandescent lamp]]; the AC current is roughly proportional to the [[direct current]] (DC) through the control winding.

The power windings, the control winding, and the core are arranged so that the control winding is well isolated from the AC power. The AC power windings are also usually configured so that they self-cancel any AC voltage that might otherwise be induced in the control winding.

Because the required inductance to achieve dimming varies with the size of the load, saturable reactors often have multiple taps, allowing a small inductance to be used with a large load or a larger inductance to be used with a smaller load. In this way, the required magnitude of the control current can be kept roughly constant, no matter what the load is.