VA vs. Watts? How much power do I need? Power cond

Thank you all, very very much. Especially Gs5556 for suggestions.

Parkcaka

Thanks guys.

I understand the difference between true power and apparent power but I never knew about the difference in ratings from power conditioners rated in VA to those in watts.

GS, if you double the watts to get the approriate VA, why don't you halve the VA to get the appropriate watts. With 12VA or 12 watts it doesn't really matter that much but if the numbers were bigger it would. Using your math I would choose a 500 watt conditioner for a 500VA load when it looks like a 250 watt unit would suffice.

Actually you don't multiple the VA by 2 to get Watts consumed, but divide the VA by the sine of the phase angle difference, which can be around 0.98 in typical systems. A .5 value would be really extreme. BTW, the household meter for power consumption uses around 0.98 as the power factor.