Inductor has no high inrush current

[GoldDigger]

Question- what if you have an air choke inductor? Will these present low inrush since there is now iron core to dump flux into?

An air core inductor (air choke?) will exhibit very linear behavior and will not have the very large early cycle currents that an iron core choke or transformer might exhibit. But you can still have current ranging up to twice the steady state peak if the circuit connection is made at a zero crossing of the AC waveform.

Note that the situation with a motor is very different because in the steady state condition the zero load and full load currents are reduced because the effective voltage on the windings is reduced by the counter EMF caused by self induction of the turning rotor field. There is no counter EMF when the motor shaft speed is zero.

 

[junkhound]

Just to not confuse folks, the peak to peak for an air core current is the same, just the firs few cycles are offset.

 

[FionaZuppa]

It is nonstandard terminology and confusing to use RI for Resistor-Inductor. Much more common would be RL for that purpose.
Especially when you do not use subscripts, I is pretty much reserved for current.

i did mean RL , sorry.