Both watts (W) and volt-amperes (VA) are units of measurement for electrical power. Watts refer to “real power,” while volt-amperes refer to “apparent power.” Usually, electronic products show one or ...

A decade or so ago, I designed a simple circuit that included a quad optoisolator arranged in a full-wave analog-multiplier bridge (Figure 1). It sensed and calculated watts of ac-power consumption ...

Analog topologies abound for converting current to voltage, voltage to current, voltage to frequency, and frequency to voltage, among other conversions. Figure 1 joins the flock while singing a ...

The electrical panel, also known as the service panel, is the control center for all the electrical circuitry in a residence. Today’s panels are bigger than earlier versions. They have to be, because ...

Measuring a voltage is pretty easy: just place your multimeter’s probes across the relevant pins and read the value. Probing currents is a bit trickier, since you need to open up the circuit and place ...

You can also read this article online as part of the Article Series: What’s the Difference Between Watts, RMS and More. Both watts (W) and volt-amperes (VA) are units of measurement for electrical ...