Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a circuit.Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power, defined as one joule per second.Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of watts are called kilowatts, megawatts and gigawatts respectively.
In direct current (DC) circuits, this product is equal to the real power, measured in watts. [3] The volt-ampere is dimensionally equivalent to the watt : in SI units , 1 V⋅A = 1 W. VA rating is most used for generators and transformers, and other power handling equipment, where loads may be reactive (inductive or capacitive).
Current lagging voltage (quadrant I vector), current leading voltage (quadrant IV vector). These are all denoted in the adjacent diagram (called a power triangle). In the diagram, P is the active power, Q is the reactive power (in this case positive), S is the complex power and the length of S is the apparent power.
An electric current is a flow of charged particles, ... 20 The commonly known SI unit of power, the watt (symbol: W), is equivalent to one joule per second.
A schematic representation of long distance electric power transmission. From left to right: G=generator, U=step-up transformer, V=voltage at beginning of transmission line, Pt=power entering transmission line, I=current in wires, R=total resistance in wires, Pw=power lost in transmission line, Pe=power reaching the end of the transmission line, D=step-down transformer, C=consumers.
In terms of electromagnetism, one watt is the rate at which electrical work is performed when a current of one ampere (A) flows across an electrical potential difference of one volt (V), meaning the watt is equivalent to the volt-ampere (the latter unit, however, is used for a different quantity from the real power of an electrical circuit).
The dimension of power is energy divided by time. In the International System of Units (SI), the unit of power is the watt (W), which is equal to one joule per second. Other common and traditional measures are horsepower (hp), comparing to the power of a horse; one mechanical horsepower equals about 745.7 watts.
For each sample, the voltage is multiplied by the current at the same instant; the average over at least one cycle is the real power. The real power divided by the apparent volt-amperes (VA) is the power factor. A computer circuit uses the sampled values to calculate RMS voltage, RMS current, VA, power (watts), power factor, and kilowatt-hours.