Watts and volts are not independent of each other. Watts cannot exist without volts since they are the product of a combination of volts and amps. In basic terms and using the hydraulic analogy, volts are similar to pressure and watts are similar to rate.
Understanding the basic concept of rate is key to understanding watts vs. Speaking to a friend about traveling, one could say that the vehicle covered 65 miles. While this is useful information, it doesn't give a full picture of exactly what just happened. You may have said that you drove 65 miles, but what's the greater context of this?
Did you drive it in about one hour? That's normal and expected. If you drove it in three months, that's a completely different thing. This is where time comes into play. Time by itself, too, is incomplete data.
If you told the friend that you drove for ten hours, the friend might follow up by asking where you drove or how far you drove. Discussing the length of a car trip is an incomplete set of data. One set of data deals with distance in the physical world; another set deals with time. Instead of juggling two sets of data back and forth, it is much more helpful and convenient to come up with a single number that combines the two. That number is rate. There is also a formula for power. In this formula, P is power, measured in watts , I is the current , measured in amperes , and V is the potential difference or voltage drop across the component, measured in volts.
Knowing how much current is flowing to your load is very important in selecting the correct wire. We take the distance into consideration to calculate the voltage loss. The other half of this calculation is the current. You need a larger wire to move more current.
If you have a choice the higher voltage is best. These formulas are also useful in calculating AC alternating current wattage to determine the size of an inverter, which converts the DC electricity from a solar array to AC that can then be used to power lights and appliances in homes and businesses.
Appliances include a face plate which contains all of its electrical data. Lets suppose you have a microwave oven. Pressure is the force that moves the water through the hose, just like voltage pushes electrons through a conductor. Resistance tries to slow down the flow of electrons. In our water analogy, resistance is the diameter of the hose. A wide hose has very little resistance and allows water to flow through it quickly.
Conductors with low electrical resistance, like copper wire, allow electrons to flow easily through them, just like the wide hose. Power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred in a circuit and is measured in watts. Power is a little harder to explain using the water analogy.
In an electrical system, you can increase the power by increasing the current or increasing the voltage. It is represented by a simple equation. If you keep the resistance the same and increase the voltage, the current has to increase.
Like in our hose analogy, if you increase the pressure, then more water will flow through it. Resistance works against voltage to slow down the flow of electrons.
If resistance increases while the voltage stays the same, the current flowing through the circuit will decrease. You should think of electric current as the flow of water through a hosepipe. The more water flowing through the hosepipe, the stronger the current is.
Volts are the measurement used to determine how much force is needed to cause the electric current to flow. In keeping with the earlier example, you could think of volts as the water pressure in the hosepipe, which makes the water flow. Amps multiplied by Volts equals Watts, which is the measurement used to determine the amount of energy.
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