the capacitor 48 is significant capacitors are relatively short lived components eliminating the capacitor 48 reduces the likelihood of premature appliance failure in appliances conducting large heating currents it may be preferred to use the capacitor 48 despite such potential shortcomings without the capacitor 48 there may be delay in triggering of the triac 26 and premature shutting down of the triac 26 in each half cycle of the line frequency this will tend to occur during short instances at zero cross overs of the line frequency when the supply voltage may not be sufficient to allow the amplifier 50 to remain operative and consequently to trigger or maintain conduction by the triac 26 this may tend to heat the triac 50 creating a need for more expensive heating sinking fig3 diagrammatically illustrates how the circuitry shown in fig4 can be adapted to make power dissipation in the divider 32 less critical as diagrammatically indicated in fig3 both resistors 34 36 of the divider 32 are mounted together with the resistive heating element 14 in a common compartment 72 of the appliance 10 the compartment 72 has only been indicated diagrammatically in phantom outline in an oven for example that may be the compartment which is otherwise heated by the element 14 each of the resistors 34 36 may be formed of appropriate resistance wire selected to withstand elevated temperatures the resistance of the elements 34 36 may be selected sufficiently low that the operating current required by the control circuitry is insignificant compared to the current flow otherwise occurring in the divider 32.