Volts, amps, watts, power, current, energy, electricity--all words that, at one time or another, have been used to mean "juice," what you get when you flip the switch. Electrical engineers, of course, use these words with precision (usually!), but, as strange as it may seem, not everyone is an electrical engineer. Nevertheless, everyone makes decisions every day about using electricity, and some of those decisions are very consequential. If you are not an EE and you do make consequential decisions about using electricity, this voltage explainer is for you.

Everything that uses electricity expects the electricity to meet certain standards. Power that doesn't meet all of these standards can damage equipment, cause lights to flicker, shorten equipment life, cause equipment to perform poorly, waste energy, and cost money. For our friends who didn't happen to study electrical engineering in college (and perhaps a few who did), here's an overview of power quality, written for mortals.

Pacific Volt’s technology is unique because of their IP which describes an AC to AC converter.

Electrical engineering and the electrical power industry employ a rich vocabulary. Here are reminders of what the 250 most useful terms mean