# KW or KVA?



## Big John (May 23, 2010)

You're calculating apparent power. VA = Volts x amps

If you want watts, you need to know power factor, like you said.


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## hardworkingstiff (Jan 22, 2007)

You are looking at it backwards.

V*A = VA

V*A*PF/1000 = KW


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## Pete m. (Nov 19, 2011)

What type of facility is it?

You could probably plug a number in such as 80 or 90% for PF unless the load calculation you are doing is critical.

Pete


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## shwadaddy76 (Apr 28, 2013)

It's a small data center.


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## shwadaddy76 (Apr 28, 2013)

I'm giving them a PUE # so they have a benchmark to judge efficiency, and want to be accurate


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

If you want to know KW you need a wattmeter.. remember trying to hook those damn things up in apprentice school? 

I'd still probably screw up the connections! :laughing:


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

Yeah, for this type of work you need to rent a power meter. We use Protec, but there are probably other outfits closer to you if you look.


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

FrunkSlammer said:


> If you want to know KW you need a wattmeter.. remember trying to hook those damn things up in apprentice school?
> 
> :


 No. But I'm sure I did as I never missed a class. I actually don't remember anything from school except going out and starting my car in -35 weather at lunch so the thing would start when I went home at night.

In my many years in the trade I must have used something they taught me in school. Must have.


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## Pharon (Jan 20, 2014)

shwadaddy76 said:


> I'm giving them a PUE # so they have a benchmark to judge efficiency, and want to be accurate


If you want to be accurate, give them VA. If it's a data center, the pf is probably between 0.9 and 0.95, but if they're just looking for trending over time, that doesn't really matter.


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