AC Power - VA, Watts, Power Factor, etc. - AbeCollins

Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

AC Power - VA, Watts, Power Factor, etc.

I'm not clear on VA and PF vs Watts.
In a purely resistive circuit real Watts is simply Volts x Amperes.
In a reactive circuit there's apparent power and real power because in a reactive circuit, some of the power is not actually consumed. I recall a little about phase angle with E leading I or I leading E (depending on inductively reactive vs capacitivly reactive load) and something called Power Factor.
I guess my question is this... If a particular piece of gear has a Volt-Ampere rating of lets say 1 KVA and the power factor is 0.9, can I simply take 1000-watts multiplied by 0.9 to get actual real power consumption?
Thanks.

Accuphase DP-65v -> PS Audio PCA-2 Pre -> AES/Cary SixPac tube amps -> Tannoy D500 spkrs

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Topic - AC Power - VA, Watts, Power Factor, etc. - AbeCollins 20:13:40 09/29/04 (3)

Power Factor is the ratio of Watts to VA. - Tony Montana 17:04:38 09/30/04 (2)

Re: Power Factor is the ratio of Watts to VA. - AbeCollins 21:37:33 09/30/04 (1)

Re: Power Factor is the ratio of Watts to VA. - yali 13:35:34 12/03/04 (0)

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