<br/>

Electrical power is often expressed in two units, Watts and VA.  Wattage and Volt-Amps rather, get misused because many people do not understand the differences in them and when they should be used.  In this episode I break down the differences in the two terms and how they relate to one-another in the electrical industry.Wattage (Watts)

Most people use the word wattage or watts on a pretty regular basis when talking about power consumed in an electrical circuit.  If we have a 75-watt light bulb, we might say that this bulb is “burning” at 75-watts.  This is because this bulb is rated at this wattage based on the materials inside of it.  There is a filament (coil of wire) inside the bulb that has a very specific resistance.  When connecting 120-volts across this filament a certain amount of heat and light is produced because 0.83 amps of current are flowing through the filament. 

The heat and light coming from the filament is technically waste, or “power loss” – however it’s not REALLY lost.  The light, and sometimes heat, is a wanted effect of running current through the high-resistance filament.  In fact, that is the entire purpose of it’s design.  We want that filament to be crammed with current so much that it starts to glow red-hot.  This light bulb is consuming 75-watts of energy when it is turned on. Wattage is the actual power consumed, or “true power” that is recorded by the electrical meter and charged for by your utility company.

Volt-Amps (VA)

Volt-Amps are very similar to Watts, but are not the same thing.  A volt-amp is a calculated value, or assumed value that represents how much “theoretical power” should be present to be consumed.  Think of it this way: In the example above we said the Wattage of that lightbulb was 75-watts.  Well if we take the voltage (120v) of the circuit times the amperage (0.83amps) we get 75-volt-amps.  So in this light-bulb, the VA or volt-amps are equal to the wattage being consumed.  But that’s not always the case.

Say we have a 75kva transformer in a building.  75kva is equivalent to 75,000 volt-amps.  This could be because the transformer is a 480-volt transformer that can handle 156-amps of current flowing into it, or a 240-volt transformer that can handle 312-amps of current.  Either way by multiplying the voltage by the amperage we get the calculated VOLT-AMP rating of the available power present at the transformer. (480v x 156a = 75,000 va or 240v x 312a = 75,000 va)  We cannot simply say that this is a 75,000 watt transformer or 75KW transformer because the 75,000 figure represents a calculation for how much power is available.  This is called the “apparent power,” and must be represented in Volt-Amps (VA).  If we said this transformer was a 75,000 watt transformer then we would be saying this transformer will burn 75,000 watts of power when turned on, which is simply not true.  A transformer needs to provide a certain amount of power, that on the primary side is capable of producing a certain amount of power, and on the secondary is capable of producing the exact same power but with different voltage/amperage.

Remember the volt-amps are looking at the calculation of the circuit to see how much “apparent power” S

Want to learn more about becoming an electrician or mastering the craft? Visit ElectricianU.com for courses, resources, and everything you need to succeed!