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Differences Between Watts and Volt Amps
Differences Between Watts and Volt Amps
Volt Amps
by Editorial Staff
As you would know, electrical products generally indicate both to
show how much energy and current they draw.
Real power is measured in watts (or W). One watt is the consumption
or generation of energy at the rate of one joule per second. This is
what you as a consumer generally pay your electrical utility in
kilowatt-hours (a 60W light bulb left on for 10 hours consumes 0.6
kWh).
Watts are calculated by W = volts (rms) x amps (rms) x cos (phi) where
phi is the angle between the current and voltage for ac circuits (cos
(phi) is often referred to as the power factor). Rms volts refers to root
mean square voltage (which is peak volts divided by square root of
2).
For dc circuits, this simply becomes W = V (dc) x I (dc) .
When calculating the real power for multiple devices; you simply add
the watts for each appliance.
Volt amps are very important for calculating current draw (and is
essential to know in sizing cables). So to work out the current draw
of a device; you simply take the VA and divide by rms voltage.
Adding VA
Power factor is always between zero and 1 because watts (real power)
is always less than or equal to volt amperes. As you electrical types
know, it is possible to have a voltage across a device (e.g. capacitor)
and to draw a significant current (and thus need to rate the cables
correctly for this current) but to consume no energy (zero watts).
Volts vs Watts