Volts vs Watts

Volts is the unit of measurement for potential difference while watts is the unit of measurement for power. These two are used only in electric circuits to quantify the power of a power source or the electricity needs of a certain device. Voltage and wattage are related to each other because you can derive the value of one from the other, given that you have another variable; either current in amps or resistance in ohms. In order to get the wattage of something, you would need to multiply the voltage across its terminals and the current flowing through it. And since current and voltage are tied to each other based on the Ohms law, you can derive other formulas from it.

Taking or calculating voltage values is a lot easier compared to wattage as it is more straightforward. In order to get a watt reading, you would need to get both the current and voltage. This is complicated further by something called power factor which is due to the existence of reactive components in the circuit such as capacitors and inductors. The power factor relates apparent power to real power because the reactive components can store electric charge. A higher power factor means a more efficient circuit compared to a low power factor. This complexity also comes with benefits as power provides us with a more realistic quantification. If you know how many watts a device consumes, you can easily compute how much money it costs to run the device every hour.

Most electrical devices do not show how many watts it provides. The values listed on most electrical devices are the voltage in volts and the current in amps. You can compute the wattage from those. Wattage is often seen in devices that have motors like air conditioning units or refrigerators.

If you are reading how many volts, you are only getting one aspect of the power source.

Summary:
1.Volts is the unit of measurement for potential difference while Watts is a unit of measurement for power
2.You can get wattage by multiplying the voltage with the maximum current the power source can deliver
3.It is more difficult to get a watt reading than a voltage reading
4.Volts only describes a portion of the power source while Watts can give you a more realistic measurement
5.Power supplies and batteries often show how many volts it provides but not how many watts