What is kVA?
Kilowatts or amps are familiar to most people. But when renting or buying a generator or genset, people often talk about kVA. But what exactly is kVA? And how can you calculate how much you need for your generator?
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Kilowatts or amps are familiar to most people. But when renting or buying a generator or genset, people often talk about kVA. But what exactly is kVA? And how can you calculate how much you need for your generator?
Contact opnemen
The power generators come in different sizes - from 6 kVA to 120 kVA - so that all construction sites and events can be supplied with renewable energy on site. Our bio-solar-hybrid generators are more sustainable than conventional diesel generators and hybrid diesel-battery generators. When the sun is not shining, our generators automatically switch from solar to battery and then to bio-diesel genset. This way, we make sure you always have power..
kVA is the abbreviation of kiloVoltAmpere and indicates electrical power. Just like watts. Here, you can assume that 1 kVA equals 1 kW (kiloWatt). In practice, it often works slightly differently. This is because watts are used to indicate the power consumed and kiloVoltAmpere is used to indicate how much current is required to do so. And there is a difference in that.
This is because apparent power is involved. Not all the power can be used. This is because the power supplied consists of an active power (effective) and a blind power (non-effective). How much power can be used effectively is indicated by a power factor (pf). This is usually around 80%.
Converting KvA to kW, watts or amps is very simple:
1 kVA = 0.8 kW
1 kVA = 800 watts
1 kVA = 1.5 amps
Note! We use a power factor of 0.8 in the above. In practice, this can of course also be a pf of 0.6 or 0.9.
The number of kVA you need depends on the total kilowatts your equipment consumes. You therefore need the full power. Do your appliances collectively consume 10kW? Then you will need 10 / 0.8 = 12.5 kVA. And does your equipment operate at 10 amps? Then the power is 10 x 230V = 2300 watts (or 2.3 kW)*. So in that case, you will need 2.3 / 0.8 = 2.875 kvA.
*However, a connection is not always 230V. With heavier equipment, for instance, you use a 400-volt high-voltage connection. Appliances that require power current and operate at the same 10 amps will then have a capacity of 10 x 400 = 4000 watts or 4 kW. You will then also need 4 / 0.8 = 5 kVA!
When determining how many kiloVoltAmps are needed, also take the peak current or peak load into account. This is because some electrical equipment requires (much) more power when starting up than when running for a while. If you then connect appliances to a generator with just enough power, you may run out of power. Especially if you start several heavy appliances at the same time.
So how many kVA your genset should be depends on how much voltage you need (230V or 400V) and the combined capacity of all the equipment you connect to the generator at the same time. By default, you then need a little more to cope with moments of peak load. Check the model specifications for the exact power output of our models.
We will be happy to help you calculate the required capacity for your project and which of our green generators best suits it. Completely free of obligation, of course. Feel free to contact us.
Mark Rasing
Gebr. van Kessel
We have been renting a solar generator for our work in Armhem for over six months now. My experience during that period with Volta has been more than positive, committed people with an eye for customer and quality.
Jip Prijs
CEOBNA personal architecture
We asked Roel to help think about our Sun in the City project. He was immediately enthusiastic and came to our rescue. We used the Volta Energy Naos for a co-creation session at a neighbourhood party in Rotterdam. We were able to connect our computer with VR glasses directly to the system - that impressed the neighbourhood a lot! In addition, the system was enthusiastically used by the food stalls at the festival.
Marianne Faro
Cool solar-based green power supply, coming with an incredible nice service. Very friendly, very helpful, everything gets installed and checked. Great team!
Jeanine Roelse
For the Lower House elections in the municipality of Rotterdam, we gratefully used Volta Energy's solar generators. Volta delivers more than just a beautiful and reliable product with a positive message and functional purpose. Roel made a tremendously positive contribution to this project throughout the entire process, thereby relieving us of all our worries.
Dion Bossers
Fine service, good coverage and our entire event ran on solar power: top!
Chuan Bui
Sustainable, reliable and, on balance, cheaper than a diesel aggregate. Rented on behalf of Boskalis Netherlands.
Michael Verstraeten
An innovative, professional and dynamic company is Volta Energy. Very helpful and with a problem-solving mindset. Very nice experience to work with and hire.
JW van der Klugt
Working with Volta Energy for the first time. This turned out well. A company you can make good agreements with (which they then honour) and they have nice equipment. Worth repeating.
