Electrical question - What is the difference between: wattage, volts, and amps?

[IC-Tom1]

Watts is the amount of electrical work being done, for example 746 watts = 1 horse power. Because there is no VAR in DC, it is measured in watts. AC on the other had has three components, Watts, actual work being done, reactance (VAR), which is a measure of the needed power that flows for the build and the collapse of the magnetic field within an inductor), and VA (apparent power) which is comprised of the other two. If there is no VAR in the circuit, (which you won't have in a DC circuit) then there is only watts, no VA. VA is not the same as watts.
View attachment 191430I found this, which hopefully explains it a little better. It's been a while since I've had to deal with the formulas for this.

• The power dissipated by a load is referred to as true power. True power is symbolized by the letter P and is measured in the unit of Watts (W).
• Power merely absorbed and returned in load due to its reactive properties is referred to as reactive power. Reactive power is symbolized by the letter Q and is measured in the unit of Volt-Amps-Reactive (VAR).
• Total power in an AC circuit, both dissipated and absorbed/returned is referred to as apparent power. Apparent power is symbolized by the letter S and is measured in the unit of Volt-Amps (VA).
• These three types of power are trigonometrically related to one another. In a right triangle, P = adjacent length, Q = opposite length, and S = hypotenuse length. The opposite angle is equal to the circuit’s impedance (Z) phase angle.

Your are correct when you say that VA = watts in a DC circuit, but when you say VA, it is assumed you are talking about an AC circuit.

Yes. The "assumed you are talking about an AC circuit" statement and your vector triangle freely admit you are talking about an agreed upon convention for terminology in the AC power industry, but that is not the only place "VA" is used. It's also an accepted convention in physics, electricity, or electronics. Use of "VA" in the power industry doesn't negate that "V" is volts and "A" is amps, or that the product of "V" and "A" are the very definition of Power and its resulting units of Watts

 

[NCRC5315]

IC-Tom1 is correct, further research has shown me the error of my ways.

 

[Snowman]

Electricity. A true "I'm an idiot who's lucky to be alive" story: Sis and Bro- in-law are popping up the top on their house, and by default I've become "The Gopher."
LONG days and short nights, because they couldn't afford to pay the two carpenters their asking rate to go to the hardware store and just stand in line.
So the head guy sends me to get a 3' tail (a male plug with 3 tails, +, -, and ground) 220v for the dryer.
I took a look, went to buy it and find out there are three or four versions of the socket. Go with the one I THOUGHT I remembered seeing. . .
and I'm so tired I walked back into the soon- to-be new laundry room, took it out of the bag. and plugged it right in. Just to be sure...
BAM!!!!!
The carpenter meekly looks around the corner. "Are you ok?"
Yeah, 'cause I'm still alive to tell this story.

I was so tired I had just plugged a pair of hot, opposite polarity 220v wires into a live circuit.
Bare tails, with open ends. . .
THAT is how people get killed on a jobs sites.
But I'm still a live idiot.
I know this because these are my pants. . .so I must still be me.

 

[dgrafix]

Not much to add that has not already been covered,
An easy way to look at it is using water under a force constant like gravity or a set pressure. The -potential- force of water is your volts, the amps are the flow allowed, so higher amps = more flow, lower amps = more resistance.
Watts is the "work"power, so it would be the "potential energy" of the water (volts) multiplied by the flow (amps) will give you the output power of the water/electricity.