I’m reading through my Solar Inverter/Charge controller manual and I see the Peak Power Rating is 10,000VA. I didn’t recognize the unit “VA”, but it seemed suspiciously close to 10,000 (V)olt (A)mps but I already know Watts=volts x Amps so why wouldn’t the manual just say Watts if that’s what they meant?
So I googled what unit is VA and learned it is indeed an Volt-Ampere. So how does this differ from watts? Further googling showed me that it’s the difference between Real Power and Apparent Power. So what’s that?
After trying to watch several YouTube videos, I just don’t get it. They’re far too technical for me and they all seem to go into circuit design which; I already have a tenuous grasp on electricity as it is.
Please what the difference is!
In: 2
Unfortunately it is pretty technical.
AC power looks like a sine wave when you graph voltage against time. In AC circuits there are components that can affect that sine wave by shifting it left and right. (like inductors or capacitors).
You can also graph the current over time and you will see the same sinusoidal graph.
If we put both waves on the same graph and they completely over lap eachother to the point that you can only see a single wave, then the AC power here is considered completely in phase of eachother.
When they dont match, they are out of phase. Things that have inductance or capacitance can shift the voltage wave left and right. Electric motors are basically really long wires wrapped into windings much like a coil, these add a lot of inductance to a circuit and shift the voltage left out of phase with the current.
real power is the portion of voltage that is in phase with the current
reactive power is voltage that is out of phase with the current.
True power (this is the VA measurement) is the theoretical maximum power of a circuit. Thic can be achieved with a purely resistive load (no inductance or capacitance shifting the voltage left or right)
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