How to Find VA for Transformers

By Christopher Donahue, eHow Contributor

Volt amps (VA) is the effective power rating for a transformer. In the perfect transformer, the
voltage and current (combined) applied at the primary will exactly equal the voltage and current
(combined) on the secondary(s).

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Things You'll Need

 Digital Multimeter (DMM)

 Paper
 Pencil

Instructions
1. VA Calculation
o 1

Read the transformer's secondary winding rating (printed or tagged on the

transformer case). This should give a rating such as 5 V , 500 mA.

Multiply the voltage times the current to receive the VA.

Ex: 5 V times 500 mA (or 0.5 A) equals 2.5 VA

o 2

Convert the secondary winding VA value to the primary winding VA rating as the
equation VA (primary) equals VA (secondary) or VA (p) = VA (s).
 For the example of a 2.5 VA secondary, if the primary voltage is 120 V the
current will be A (p) = VA (s)/V(p). Giving A(p) = 2.5 / 120 = 0.020833 (roughly
21mA).
This is the calculation for a single input winding/single output winding
transformer.
Verify using DMM to read input voltage and current versus voltage at a given
output current.

o
o 3

Add the separate VA ratings for a transformer with multiple secondary windings.
For secondary winding 1 = 5 V at 500 mA
Secondary winding 2 = 24 V at 100 mA
Total secondary VA = ( 5 x 0.5 ) + ( 24 x 0.1) = 4.9 VA
Primary VA will still equal the total secondary VA.

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