You must have heard of these terms in Solar PV system capacity. So which one to use while checking solar PV capacity.
Let us tell you, the main difference between kW and kVA lies in the fact that kVA is apparent power and kW is actual power. This means kVA is the power system that will deliver in ideal conditions and no condition is ideal. Hence after considering the Power Factor, we get actual power in kW and not in kVA.
kVA= pf * kW.
In most of the cases Power Factor is 0.8. This means that if a system provides 1kVA power, it’s actual power would be around 800 W.
Solar dealers in most of the cases would use the term kVA as it suits them from technical and marketing point of view.
So it’s very important to make clear the term supplier is using. In case the supplier uses the term kVA then you can multiply it with 0.8 (approx.) to convert it into kW.