Orders of magnitude (power)


This page lists examples of the power in watts produced by various sources of energy. They are grouped by orders of magnitude.

Below 1 W

Factor SI prefixValue Item
10−271.64phys: approximate power of gravitational radiation emitted by a 1000 kg satellite in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.
10−24Yocto-
10−21~1biomed: lowest recorded power consumption of a deep-subsurface marine microbe
10−20~1tech: approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal as received on earth by a 70-meter DSN antenna.
10−18Atto- 1phys: approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems are overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.
10−161tech: the GPS signal strength measured at the surface of the Earth.
10−15Femto- 2.5tech: minimum discernible signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
10−141tech: approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phones
10−12Pico- 1biomed: average power consumption of a human cell
10−111.84phys: power lost in the form of synchrotron radiation by a proton revolving in the Large Hadron Collider at 7000 GeV
10−101.5biomed: power entering a human eye from a 100-watt lamp 1 km away
10−9Nano- 2–15tech: power consumption of 8-bit PIC microcontroller chips when in "sleep" mode
10−6Micro- 1tech: approximate consumption of a quartz or mechanical wristwatch
10−6Micro- 3astro: cosmic microwave background radiation per square meter
10−55biomed: sound power incident on a human eardrum at the threshold intensity for pain.
10−3Milli- 5tech: laser in a CD-ROM drive
10−3Milli- 5–10tech: laser in a DVD player
10−2Centi- 7tech: antenna power in a typical consumer wireless router
10−1Deci- 5tech: maximum allowed carrier output power of an FRS radio

1 to 102 W

Factor SI prefixValue Item
100W2tech: maximum allowed carrier power output of a MURS radio
100W4tech: the power consumption of an incandescent night light
100W4tech: maximum allowed carrier power output of a 10-meter CB radio
100W7tech: the power consumption of a typical Light-emitting diode light bulb
100W8tech: human-powered equipment using a hand crank.
101Deca- 1.4 x 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household compact fluorescent light bulb
101Deca- 2–4 x 101biomed: approximate power consumption of the human brain
101Deca- 3–4 x 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household fluorescent tube light
101Deca- 6 x 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household incandescent light bulb
102Hecto- 1 x 102biomed: approximate basal metabolic rate of an adult human body
102Hecto- 1.2 x 102tech: electric power output of solar panel in full sunlight, at sea level
102Hecto- 1.3 x 102tech: peak power consumption of a Pentium 4 CPU
102Hecto- 2 x 102tech: stationary bicycle average power output
102Hecto- 2.9 x 102units: approximately 1000 BTU/hour
102Hecto- 3–4 x 102tech: PC GPU Nvidia Geforce Fermi 480 peak power consumption
102Hecto- 4 x 102tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United Kingdom
102Hecto- 5 x 102biomed: power output of a person working hard physically
102Hecto- units: 1 horsepower
102Hecto- 7.5 x 102astro: approximately the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth's surface at noon on a clear day in March for northern temperate latitudes
102Hecto- 9.09 x 102biomed: peak output power of a healthy human during a 30-second cycle sprint at 30.1 degree Celsius.

103 to 108 W

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, engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment.
For reference, about 10,000 100-watt lightbulbs or 5,000 computer systems would be needed to draw 1 MW. Also, 1 MW is approximately 1360 horsepower. Modern high-power diesel-electric locomotives typically have a peak power of 3–5 MW, while a typical modern nuclear power plant produces on the order of 500–2000 MW peak output.

109 to 1014 W

1015 to 1026 W

Over 1027 W

10313.31 × 1031 Wastro: approximate luminosity of Beta Centauri
10321.23 × 1032 Wastro: approximate luminosity of Deneb
10333.0768 × 1033 Wastro: approximate luminosity of R136a1
10365 × 1036 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Milky Way galaxy.
10391 × 1039 Wastro: average luminosity of a quasar
10411 × 1041 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the most luminous quasars in our universe, e.g., APM 08279+5255 and HS 1946+7658.
10421 × 1042 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Local Supercluster
10423 × 1042 Wastro: approximate luminosity of an average gamma-ray burst
10451 × 1045 Wastro: record for maximum beaming-corrected intrinsic luminosity ever achieved by a gamma-ray burst
10477.6 × 1047 Wphys: Hawking radiation luminosity of a Planck mass black hole
10493.6 × 1049 Wastro: approximate peak power of GW150914, the first observation of gravitational waves
10523.63 × 1052 Wphys: the coherent unit of power in the Planck units