Orders of magnitude (power)

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This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various different sources of energy. They are grouped by orders of magnitude, and each section covers three orders of magnitude, or a factor of one thousand.

Contents

1 Yoctowatt (10^-24 watt)
2 Zeptowatt (10^-21 watt)
3 Attowatt (10^-18 watt)
4 Femtowatt (10^-15 watt)
5 Picowatt (10^-12 watt)
6 Nanowatt (10^-9 watt)
7 Microwatt (10^-6 watt)
8 Milliwatt (10^-3 watt)
9 Watt
10 Kilowatt (10³ watt)
11 Megawatt (10⁶ watt)
12 Gigawatt (10⁹ watt)
13 Terawatt (10¹² watt)
14 Petawatt (10¹⁵ watt)
15 Exawatt (10¹⁸ watt)
16 Zettawatt (10²¹ watt)
17 Yottawatt (10²⁴ watt)
18 Greater than Yottawatt
19 See also

Yoctowatt (10^-24 watt)

Zeptowatt (10^-21 watt)

~10 zW - Tech: approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal (when at Jupiter) as received on earth by a 70 meter DSN antenna.

Attowatt (10^-18 watt)

1 aW - Phys: approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems is overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations. [link]

Femtowatt (10^-15 watt)

2.5 fW - Tech: minimum discernable signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
10 fW (-110 dBm) - Tech: approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phones

Picowatt (10^-12 watt)

1 pW - BioMed: average power consumption of a human cell
2.5 pW - BioMed: Sound intensity per square centimeter for average human threshold of hearing at 1000 Hz; 1 phon or 0 dB SPL
150 pW - BioMed: Power entering a human eye from a 100 watt lamp 1 km away

Nanowatt (10^-9 watt)

2-15nW - Tech: Power consumption of some PIC Microcontroller chips such as the PIC12F683 when in "sleep" mode. (actual consumption when sleeping depends on voltage supply used, see data sheet, Electrical Characteristics section).

Microwatt (10^-6 watt)

1 µW - Tech: approximate consumption of a quartz wristwatch
3 µW - Astro: cosmic microwave background radiation per square meter

Milliwatt (10^-3 watt)

5 mW - Tech: laser in a CD-ROM drive
5-10 mW - Tech: laser in a DVD player
100 mW - Tech: laser in a CD-R drive

Watt

5 W - Legal: maximum power output of a CB or hand-held radio transmitter
20-40 W - BioMed: approximate power consumption of the human brain
30-40 W - Tech: the power of the typical household tube light
60 W - Tech: the power of the typical household light bulb
82 W - Tech: peak power consumption of Pentium 4 CPU
100 W - BioMed: approximate average power used by the human body
120 W - Tech: power output of 1 m² solar panel in full sunlight
290 W - Units: approximately 1000 BTU/hour
300-400 W - Tech: typical PC power supply
400 W - Tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United Kingdom
500 W - BioMed: power output of a person working hard physically
745.7 W - Units: 1 horsepower
750 W - Astro: the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth's surface on a clear day
900 W - BioMed: power output of a healthy human (non-athlete) averaged over the first 6s of a 30s cycle sprint. Human power output during repeated sprint cycle exercise: the influence of thermal stress; Ball D, Burrows C, Sargeant AJ. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10090637&dopt=Abstract

Kilowatt (10³ watt)

1.366 kW - Astro: power received from the Sun at the Earth's orbit by one square metre
1.5 kW - Tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United States
up to 2 kW - BioMed: approximate short time power output of sprinting professional cyclists
1 kW to 2 kW - Tech: heat output of a domestic electric kettle.
2.2 kW - Geo: per capita average power use of the world in 2001
3.3-6.6 kW - Eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of ocean [link]
11.4 kW - Geo: per capita average power use in the U.S. in 2001
16-32 kW - Eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of land [link]
50 kW to 100 kW - Tech: ERP of clear channel AM
40 kW to 200 kW - Tech: approximate range of power output of typical automobiles
167 kW - Tech: power consumption of UNIVAC 1 computer
250 kW - Tech: highest allowed ERP for an FM band radio station in the United States.
250 kW to 800 kW - Tech: approximate range of power output of 'Supercars'

Megawatt (10⁶ watt)

0.7MW - Tech: Power output of Bugatti Veyron Supercar
1.3 MW - Tech: power output of P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft
2.5 MW - BioMed: Peak power output of a Blue Whale
3 MW - Tech: Mechanical power output of a diesel locomotive
10 MW - Tech: Highest ERP allowed for a UHF television station.
10.3 MW - Geo: Electrical power output of Togo
190 MW - Tech: peak power output of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier
900 MW - Tech: electric power output of a CANDU nuclear reactor
959 MW - Geo: average electrical power consumption of Zimbabwe in 1998

The productive capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies is often measured in MW. Few things can sustain the transfer or consumption of energy on this scale; some of these events or entities include: lightning strikes, naval craft (such as aircraft carriers and submarines), engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment (such as the supercollider and large lasers).

For reference, about 10,000 100-watt lightbulbs or 5,000 computer systems would be needed to draw 1 megawatt. Also, 1 MW equals approximately 1341 horsepower. Modern high-powered diesel-electric railroad locomotives typically have a peak power output of 3–5 MW, whereas a typical modern nuclear power plant produces on the order of 500–2000 MW peak output.

Gigawatt (10⁹ watt)

1.21 GW - Sci Fi: power needed to run the Flux Capacitor in Back to the Future to travel though time
1.3 GW - Tech: electric power output of Manitoba Hydro Limestone hydroelectric generating station
2.074 GW - Tech: peak power generation of Hoover Dam
2.1 GW - Tech: peak power generation of Aswan Dam
3 GW - Tech: approximate peak power generation of the world's largest nuclear reactor
12.6 GW - Tech: electrical power generation of the Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric power plant
12.7 GW - Geo: average electrical power consumption of Norway in 1998
18.2 GW - Tech: electrical power generation of the Three Gorges Dam in China when complete
424.3 GW - Geo: average electrical power consumption of the U.S. in 2001

Terawatt (10¹² watt)

1.7 TW - Geo: average electrical power consumption of the world in 2001
3.327 TW - Geo: average total (gas, electricity, etc) power consumption of the U.S. in 2001
13.5 TW - Geo: average total power consumption of the world in 2001
44 TW - Geo: average total heat flux from earth's interior (See figure in http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/7/16/1)
130 TW - Eco: global primary production via photosynthesis
50 to 200 TW - Weather: rate of heat energy release by a hurricane

Petawatt (10¹⁵ watt)

1.25 PW - Tech: world's most powerful laser (claimed on 23 May 1996 by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory).
1.4 PW - Geo: estimated heat flux transported by the Gulf Stream.
4 PW - Geo: estimated total heat flux transported by Earth's atmosphere and oceans away from the equator towards the poles.
174.0 PW - Astro: total power received by the Earth from the Sun

Exawatt (10¹⁸ watt)

Zettawatt (10²¹ watt)

135 ZW - Astro: Approximate luminosity of Wolf 359

Yottawatt (10²⁴ watt)

5.3 YW - Tech: Power produced by the Tsar Bomba fusion bomb, the highest power device ever made by humans
386 YW - Astro: Luminosity of the Sun

Greater than Yottawatt

3.31 × 10³¹W - Astro: Approximate luminosity of Beta Centauri
1.23 × 10³²W - Astro: Approximate luminosity of Deneb
5 × 10³⁶W - Astro: Approximate luminosity of the Milky way galaxy.
1 × 10⁴⁵W - Astro: Approximate luminosity of a Gamma ray burst
3.63 × 10⁵²W - Phys: The Planck power, the basic unit of power in the Planck units.

Orders of magnitude (power)

Yoctowatt (10-24 watt)

Zeptowatt (10-21 watt)

Attowatt (10-18 watt)

Femtowatt (10-15 watt)

Picowatt (10-12 watt)

Nanowatt (10-9 watt)

Microwatt (10-6 watt)

Milliwatt (10-3 watt)

Watt

Kilowatt (103 watt)

Megawatt (106 watt)

Gigawatt (109 watt)

Terawatt (1012 watt)

Petawatt (1015 watt)

Exawatt (1018 watt)

Zettawatt (1021 watt)

Yottawatt (1024 watt)