Were you as a kid in the same dilemma that electronics and electrical are almost the same? I understand as I have been there. I have to agree I never really thought of digging in until now. To my surprise, they are quite different and the differences are easy to understand. Electrical will tell you about electron flow whereas electronics talks about the control of that electron flow. You must be wondering why all of a sudden we need comparisons for the two. Well, the title says it all.
Watts and Volts are related to entities that are at times common to electronics as well as electrical.
Here, you will be learning in detail about Watt and Volts in addition to their electrical conversion. The need for conversion has always been an integral part of both fields. Make sure you leverage the information in the content below.
Are you familiar with homonyms? Well, if you are it will come in handy now.
Has anyone ever told you – You are a human with the utmost potential? What he/she meant by potential was the ability or capacity to develop or do something- Human Potential. It is easy to understand in simple English language.
However, what we are dealing with here is – Electric Potential.
The word ‘electric’ itself changes it all. With that, the other two terms- Potential difference and Electromotive force is important as well study.
The term can be best explained that to move a unit charge from a reference point to a particular point against the influence of the electric field, some amount of work is needed to be done. This amount of work is referred to as the Electric Potential.
The Earth or any point beyond the electric field influence can be a reference point.
We can express difference mathematically as subtraction between two entities. Well, yes the term is as simple as it appears. Potential difference can be understood as the difference between the energy of charge carriers possessed by two different points in a circuit. We also describe the potential difference as the work being done per unit charge.
The other term, the electromotive force is similar to the potential difference. It is usually referred to as the emf. The difference between emf and the potential difference lies in one quantity- Current. The emf is the potential difference when there is no current flow between the terminals in the external circuit.
Well, the similarity is both are expressed in terms of volts.
It becomes important to be able to measure the above quantities for which a term was introduced called Volts. Both the potential difference and emf is also known as the voltage is measured in an electrical unit – volts. A volt is indicated with an uppercase V.
1 volt is equivalent to the work done in 1 joule per coulomb of charge.
The mathematical representation is,
V = W/Q
where,
V = potential difference (volts)
W = work done (Joule)
Q = electric charge (Coulomb)
To facilitate the conversion of watts to volts, one needs to know the value of voltage. The question arises how will one measure it and get the value. Well, the answer is a simple measurement tool called a Voltmeter.
The voltmeters are designed to derive the value of the potential difference between two separate points. One can surely figure it out just by the name itself.
Another key point to remember is the connection. Voltmeters are to be connected mandatorily on a different branch i.e. parallel connection to the points which are being measured.
To get onto the conversion we need a head start which is easily provided by concluding a relationship between two quantities. In this case, we will look into the relationship between Watts and Volts.
We have,
The voltage is a result of a division of the power and the current.
I= P/V
Where
‘I’ is in Ampere.
‘P’ is in Watts,
‘V’ is in Volts
The relation above suggests a simple formula and conversion.
Rearranging this we can get,
V= P/I ———- 1
It is used for the DC circuit.
However, we have learned that there always happens to be more than one way. So is the case here.
When the conversion is being carried on an AC circuit the above formula fails, hence we have this particular formula for you.
V = P ÷ (I x PF) ——— 2
In the above formula, PF stands for Power factor which is the ratio of reactive power to the apparent power moreover like a measurement of energy efficiency. The value will always come between 0 and 1.
Another easy-to-go method is when resistance is known to you. With that knowledge, you can use the formula below and carry out the conversion.
V = √ (P x R) ———- 3
Remember, resistance is expressed in ohms (Ω).
At times just by looking at the formula, we are carried away interpreting all sorts of difficulties. Well, for that we know how to make it easy for you.
Given below are general words explanations of carrying out the conversion in the right way. In case you are not a fan of calculations, the calculator will act just like a friend who won’t betray you.
The above steps are surely your way to easy and hassle-free calculations.
Benefit
The need and benefit of the conversion vary from person to person and work to work. For some, it may be an ordinary conversion while others view it as useful to their knowledge. This conversion apart from knowledge tells about electrical energy consumption. Each quantity stands for itself and contributes towards data that is useful in understanding the battery life or lowering the electricity costs.
With two quantities- current and power known, you can easily derive the third i.e. Volts. In circuits, the voltage can be directly known by a voltmeter.
