Key.duration should be "the number of milliseconds this key has been held down for." with default value 0. However I've found that the inital value before the key has been pushed is in fact something else >0. Not sure how that happens, but it's easy to test by printing out the value:
var key = this.keyboard.addKey(Phaser.Keyboard.SPACEBAR);
update()
{
console.log("Duration: " + key.duration);
}