Kilovolt-ampere

A kilovolt-ampere, or kVA, is 1,000 volt-amperes. In home energy documents it is most often used as a capacity or apparent-power figure for AC electrical equipment, connection capacity, inverters, generators and distribution-network work. kVA is not the same label as kW: kW describes active power, while kVA describes the voltage-current capacity before allowing for the power factor of the load or equipment. If the power factor is close to 1, the kVA and kW figures can be similar, but they still need to be read from the document that states the rating and measurement boundary.