VOLTS/OHMS = AMPERES

Voltage across resistance causes current

Voltage divided by resistance equals current. Make the voltage twice as large, then the charges flow faster, and you get twice as much current. Make the voltage less, and the current becomes less. Ohm's law has another feature: THE MORE FRICTION YOU HAVE, THE SLOWER THE FLOW. If you keep the voltage the same (in other words, you keep using the same battery to power your light bulb), and if you double the resistance, then the charges flow slower, and you get half as much current. Increasing the resistance is easy: just hook more than one light bulb in a series chain. The more light bulbs, the more friction, which means that current is less and each bulb glows more dimly. In the bicycle wheel analogy mentioned above, a chain of light bulbs is like several thumbs all rubbing on the same spinning tire. The more thumbs, the slower the tire moves. Here's a third way of looking at Ohm's law: WHEN A CONSTANT CURRENT ENCOUNTERS FRICTION, A VOLTAGE APPEARS. We can rewrite Ohm's law to show this:
AMPERES x OHMS = VOLTS A flow of charge produces a voltage if it encounters resistance

If resistance stays the same, then the more current, the more volts you get. Or, if the current is forced to stay the same and you increase the friction, then more volts appear. Since most power supplies provide a constant voltage rather than a constant current, the above equation is used less often. Usually we already know the voltage applied to a device, and we want to find the amperage. However, a current in a thin extension cord causes loss of final voltage, and also transistor circuits involve constant currents with changing voltages, so the above ideas are still very useful. But what about joules and watts? Whenever a certain amount of charge is pushed through an electrical resistance, some electrical energy is lost from the circuit and heat is created. A certain amount of energy flows into the "frictional" resistor every second, and a certain amount of heat energy flows back out again. If we increase the voltage, then for the same hunk of charge being pushed through, more energy flows into the resistor and gets converted to heat. If we increase the hunk of charge, same thing: more heat flows out per second. Here's how to write this:
VOLTS x COULOMBS = JOULES It takes energy to push some charge

against the voltage pressure

Charge flows slowly through the resistor and back out again. For every coulomb of charge that's pulled slowly through the resistor, a certain number of joules of electrical energy race into the resistor and get converted to heat. The above equation isn't used very often. Instead, we usually think in terms of charge flow and energy flow, not in terms of hunks of charge or hunks of energy which move. However, thinking in terms of charge hunks or energy hunks makes the concepts sensible. Once you grasp the "hunks" concepts, once you know that energy is needed to push each hunk of charge against a voltage force, afterwards we can rewrite things in terms of amps and watts. Afterwards we can say that it takes a FLOW of energy (in watts) to push a FLOW of charge (in amps) against a voltage. Yet first it's important to understand the stuff that flows. Think in terms of coulombs of charge and joules of energy. The charge-flow and the energy-flow are usually written as amps and watts. This conceals the fact that some quantities of "stuff" are flowing. But once we understand what's really going on inside a circuit, it's simpler to write amperes of charge-flow and watts of energy-flow:
VOLTS x COULOMBS/SEC = JOULES/SEC It takes a flow of energy to make charge flow forward against pressure

Don't forget that "Amps" is shorthand for the charge inside wires flowing per second. And "watts" is shorthand for flowing energy. We can rewrite the equation to make it look simpler. It's not really simpler. We've just hidden the complexity of the above equation. It's shorthand. But before using the shorthand, you'd better understand the full-blown concept!
VOLTS x AMPERES = WATTS Pushing a current through a voltage requires energy flow or "power."

We can get the Ohms into the act too. Just combine this equation with Ohm's law. Charge flow is caused by volts pushing against ohms, so let's get rid of amps in the above equation and replace it with voltage and ohms. This forms the equation below. Notice: increasing the voltage will increase the energy flow that's required, but it also increases the charge flow... which increases the energy flow too! If voltage doubles, current doubles, and wattage doesn't just double, instead the doubling doubles too (wattage goes up by four times.) Tripling the voltage makes the wattage go up by NINE times. Write it like this:

VOLTS x (VOLTS/OHMS) = WATTS

Voltage applied across ohms uses up a constant flow of electrical energy

So, if you double the voltage, energy flow increases by four, but if you cut the friction in half while keeping voltage the same, energy flow goes up by two, not four. (The amperes also change, but they're hidden.) Here's one final equation. It's almost the same as the one above, but voltage is hidden rather than ampereage:
(AMPERESxOHMS) x AMPERES = WATTS When charge is flowing against ohms, electrical energy is being used up

So, the watts of energy flow will go up by four if you double the current. But if you can somehow force the current to stay the same, then when you double the friction in the circuit, the energy flow will only double (and the voltage will change, but that part's hidden.) And finally, here are a couple of things which can mess you up. Think about flowing power. Try to visualize it. I hope you fail! Remember... POWER DOESN'T FLOW! The word "power" means "flow of energy." It's OK to imagine that invisible hunks of electrical energy are flowing across a circuit. That's sensible. Electrical energy is like a stuff; it can flow along, but "energy flow" cannot flow. Power is just flowing energy, so "power" itself never flows. Beware, sincemany people (and even textbooks) will talk about "flows of power." They are wrong. They should be talking about flows of electrical energy. "Flow of power" is a wrong (and fundamentally stupid) concept. Guess what. The same books and people who talk about "flows of power" will also talk about "flows of current." They'll try to convince you that "current" is a stuff that can flow through wires. Ignore them, they're wrong. Elecric charge is like a stuff that exists inside all wires, but current is different. When pumped by a battery or a generator, the wire's internal charge-stuff starts flowing. We call the flow by the name "an electrical current." But there is no such STUFF as "current." Current cannot flow. (Ask yourself what flows in rivers, current... or water? Can you go down to the creek and collect a bucket of "current?") If you want a big shock, read through a textbook or an electronics magazine and see how many times the phrase "current flow" appears. Like the phrase "power-flow," it's not just wrong, it's STUPID. Authors are trying to teach us about flows of charge, but instead they end up convincing us that "current" is a kind of stuff! It's so weird. And it's a bit frightening because it's so widespread. It's very rare to find a book which avoids the phrase "current flow" and explain charge-flow. Most books instead talk about this crazy flow of "current."

It's no wonder that students have trouble understanding electricity. They essentially think that waterpipes are totally different from circuits because you can fill a glass with water, but who on earth can imagine filling a container with "current?"

What is the relation between KVA and watt?

I want to calculate the backup duration of 1 KVA UPS in fully charged condition when there is load of 200 watts to it. Any body can please tell me the formula for it ? Thanks in advance.

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by sb Member since: 30 April 2006 Total points: 32,006 (Level 7)

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It will require the voltage value of the charging battery so that upto what time it will survive can be known. The VA rating for a power source is called "Volt-Amperes". It is a measure of power because Power = Volts*Amperes. AC power sources are denoted in this way. This is an estimate.

If the wall power supply has a nominal voltage of 9VAC and with a 15VA rating then the current equals 15/9=1.66 amperes. The 9 volt battery in your system typically can supply 500milliamps for 1 hr. At the worst case, with the battery powering your system at 9V and 500milliamps, the system will last for only 1 Hr. Let's use this case as the baseline. A 1000VA supply is capable of suppling 9volts and 110 amperes for 1 Hr. This is scalable. It can supply 1 ampere for 1000 Hrs or 0.5 amperes(500milliamperes) for 2000 Hrs. The system only draws the current that it needs. I hope this points you in the right direction.

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by Sweety Member since: 18 September 2007 Total points: 114 (Level 1)

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POWER (WATTS) = VOLTS x AMPERES Generally: P=IE P= Power(WATTS), I = Current(AMPS) and E = Voltage. So: I = P/E and E = P/I So: 1 watt = 1 volt X 1 ampere

Similarly 1KVA = 1KW so 200 W = 200 VA

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by ThunderC... Member since: 06 August 2007 Total points: 2,176 (Level 3)

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Energy (watt) = Volts x Current. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ph

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by doug_don...

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The relationship that you need is Watts = KVA * Power Factor The power factor is defined to be the cosine of the phase angle between the voltage and the current, and the KVA rating is the product of teh RMS voltage times the RMS amperage without regard to the power factor. Watts are 'real' power, KVA is 'apparent' power. If your load isn't too terribly reactive (looking like a large capacitor or inductor) then the power factor is probably close enough to 1 that the KVA rating is about the same as the KW rating. HTH Doug
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4 people rated this as good by Marcus Paul

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1W = 1VA 1000W = 1kVA

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by t9d007 Member since: 07 June 2007 Total points: 484 (Level 2)

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power is V*I or volt * ampers ie 1 watt = 1 volt * 1 amper KVA is kilo volt amper ie volt ampere*1000 or 1000watt . For the load of 200watt , the ups should work for 5hours . 200watt load consumes 200watt in one hour so in 5 hours it will take 1000watts or 1KVA

POWER: WATT and VA RELATIONSHIP

Energy in general is defined as the capacity for doing work. Power by definition is the rate of work or
energy flow (which are numerically the same): P = Energy/Time. It can be shown that in electrical circuits the instantaneous power is p(t)=v(t)i(t). In this equation v(t) and i(t) are instantaneous voltage and current as functions of time t. In alternating current (AC) circuits all these quantities are continuously varying. The value of the main interest in electrical industry is an average value of p(t) over a complete AC cycle. This quantity is called real (active) power and is measured in watts (symbol: W):
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Watts=average{v(t)i(t)}

It represents that actual work done by an electric current or an actual energy consumed by a load to create for example heat, light or motion. Electrical systems normally have inductors and capacitors, which are referred to as reactive components. Ideal reactive components do not dissipate any energy, but they draw currents and create voltage drops, which makes the impression that they actually do. This "imaginary power" is called reactive power. Its average value over a complete AC cycle is zero because of the phase shift between voltage and current. It doesn't contribute to net transfer of energy, but circulates back and force between the source and the load and places a heavier load on the utility. Reactive power is measured in VoltAmps-Reactive (VAR). Contrary to wattage which represents an average value, numerically VAR represents an amplitude of the instantaneous reactive power. Besides reactances, practical electrical systems also contain non-linear components

such as rectifiers, which distort current waveform and create current harmonics. All these harmonics except for the fundamental one, do not contribute to the net energy transfer. The combination of real, distortion and reactive power makes up apparent (or total) power, measured in Volt-Amps (VA):

VA= VI
In this formula V and I are root-mean-square (RMS) values of voltage and current.

WHAT IS POWER FACTOR (PF)?

PF by definition is the ratio of real to apparent power:

PF=W / VA
People are often looking for a calculator to convert volt-amps (VA) to watts. Well, you need to know the value of PF to do the calculation: W=VAPF, where PF is in decimal. Likewise, you can convert watt to VA power by using this formula: VA=W/PF. Unfortunately, PF value is practically never stated in appliance's spec sheet. Old computers used to have PF=0.6-0.65. Modern computers normally have an SMPS power supply with PFC that assures near unity PF. The motor-driven appliances (such as refrigerators and air conditioners) typically have PF=0.6-0.8. If you don't know the PF of your device, assume the worse case of 0.6.

Enter any two known values and press "Calculate" to find the remaining value. Reset before each new calculation.

VA PF (<1) Watts

A "power triangle" in which active, reactive and total power are represented as vectors, is often used to visualize the relationship between watts and VA in linear circuits with sinusoidal signals. When voltage and current are sinusoidal, it can be shown that PF=cos, where - angle between voltage and current phasors. For non-sinusoidal currents this triangle is invalid due to "distortion power", which is neglected in many tutorials on electricity (for detailed math analysis see mathematics of AC power). PF value measures how effectively electricity is being utilized. We know from physics that when an object is moved by a force, mechanical work is done only by the component of the force in the direction of the motion. At a given force, maximum work is done when the force and the motion are in the same direction. If the force is perpendicular to the direction of motion, no energy is transferred by this force. Similarly, in electrical circuits, the real (working) power is transferred by the components of voltage and current which have the same frequency. At given voltage and current values, the maximum wattage transfers when they are in phase. If sinusoidal voltage and current have 90o phase shift, the wattage is zero. In some regions utilities already installed digital power meters ("smart meters") at the residential level, which compute W, VAR, and PF. They may surcharge you for VAR. However, so far most US residential meters are still rotating-disc devices that measure only real watts, so PF of your appliances does not affect your cost of electricity. In these applications using power factor correcting (PFC) devices will not reduce your electric bills. Nevertheless, PF of the appliances should be taken into account when sizing a backup energy system, such as a home generator or an UPS (see: selecting an uninterruptible (UPS) power supply). Also, lower PF will cause larger current in utility lines and additional voltage drop in the wiring. In an extreme case, reduced voltage in the electrical system can cause overheating and premature failure of motors and other inductive equipment. Unlike residential customers, for commercial and industrial electrical customers, an electric utility company may assess a penalty for low power factor and collect additional charge when PF drops below 0.95. Note that single-phase generators for homes are usually rated for loads with PF=1, so their wattage and VA ratings are the same. Since typical appliances have PF=0.6-0.8, their VA power consumption is 25-60% greater than their wattage. This has to be taken