Orders of magnitude (power)

A thermal power plant transforms thermal energy into electric energy

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

Below 1 watt

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 are overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.^[1]
• 100 aW – tech: the GPS signal strength measured at the surface of the Earth,^{[clarification needed]} roughly equivalent to viewing a 25-watt light bulb from a distance of 10,000 miles.^[2]

femtowatt (10⁻¹⁵ watt)

• 2.5 fW – tech: minimum discernible 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 (−90 dBm) – biomed: average power consumption of a human cell
• 18.4 pW – phys: power lost in the form of synchrotron radiation by a proton revolving in the Large Hadron Collider at 7000 GeV^[3]
• 150 pW – biomed: power entering a human eye from a 100-watt lamp 1 km away

nanowatt (10⁻⁹ watt)

• 2–15 nW – tech: power consumption of 8-bit PIC microcontroller chips when in "sleep" mode

microwatt (10⁻⁶ watt)

• 1 µW (−30 dBm) – 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
• 70 mW – tech: antenna power in a typical consumer wireless router

Between 1 and 1000 watts

watt

• 4 W – tech: the power consumption of an incandescent night light
• 4 W – legal: maximum allowed carrier power output of a CB
• 14 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household compact fluorescent light bulb
• 20–40 W – biomed: approximate power consumption of the human brain^[4]
• 30–40 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household fluorescent tube light
• 60 W – tech: the power consumption of a typical household incandescent light bulb
• 100 W – biomed: approximate basal metabolic rate of an adult human body^[5]
• 120 W – tech: power output of 1 m² solar panel in full sunlight (approx. 12% efficiency), at sea level
• 130 W – tech: peak power consumption of a Pentium 4 CPU
• 290 W – units: approximately 1000 BTU/hour
• 300–400 W – tech: PC GPU Nvidia Geforce Fermi 480 peak power consumption^[6]
• 400 W – tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United Kingdom
• 500 W – biomed: power output (useful work plus heat) of a person working hard physically
• 745.7 W – units: 1 horsepower
• 750 W – astro: approximately the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth's surface on a clear day in March for northern temperate latitudes
• 909 W – biomed: peak output power of a healthy human (nonathlete) during a 30-second cycle sprint at 30.1 degree Celsius.^[7]

Above 1000 watts

kilowatt (10³ watts)

• 1 kW to 3 kW – tech: heat output of a domestic electric kettle
• 1.1 kW – tech: power of a microwave oven
• 1.366 kW – astro: power per square metre received from the Sun at the Earth's orbit
• 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
• 2.4 kW (21,283 kWh/year) – geo: average power consumption per person worldwide in 2008^[8]
• 3.3–6.6 kW – eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of ocean^[9]
• 3.6 kW – tech: synchrotron radiation power lost per ring in the Large Hadron Collider at 7000 GeV^[3]
• 10 kW to 50 kW – tech: nominal power of clear channel AM^[10]
• 10.0 kW (87,216 kWh/year) – average power consumption per person in the United States in 2008^[8]
• 16–32 kW – eco: average photosynthetic power output per square kilometer of land^[9]
• 30 kW – power generated by the four motors of GEN H-4 one-man helicopter
• 40 kW to 200 kW – tech: approximate range of power output of typical automobiles
• 50 kW to 100 kW – tech: highest allowed ERP for an FM band radio station in the United States^[11]
• 167 kW – tech: power consumption of UNIVAC 1 computer
• 250 kW to 800 kW – tech: approximate range of power output of 'supercars'
• 450 kW – tech: approximate maximum power output of a large 18-wheeler truck engine
• 800 kW – tech: approximate average power output of a small coal power plant

megawatt (10⁶ watts)

• 1.3 MW – tech: power output of P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft
• 1.5 MW – tech: peak power output of GE's standard wind turbine
• 2.4 MW – tech: peak power output of a Princess Coronation class steam locomotive (approx 3.3K EDHP on test) (1937)
• 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 an UHF television station
• 10.3 MW – geo: electrical power output of Togo
• 12.2 MW – tech: approx power available to a Eurostar 20-carriage train
• 16 MW – tech: rate at which a typical gasoline pump transfers chemical energy to a vehicle
• 17 to 80 MW – tech: approximate maximum power output of a Nd:YAG laser used in Particle Image Velocimetry (100mJ over 6ns to 400mJ over 5ns, both at 532 nm)
• 26 MW – tech: peak power output of the reactor of a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine
• 75 MW – tech: maximum power output of one GE90 jet engine as installed on the Boeing 777
• 140 MW – tech: average power consumption of a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft
• 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 supercolliders 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 1360 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 watts)

• 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
• 4.116 GW – tech: installed capacity of Kendal Power Station, the world's largest coal-fired power plant.
• 8.21 GW – tech: capacity of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, the world's largest nuclear power plant.^[12][13]
• 12.6 GW – tech: electrical power generation of the Itaipu Dam
• 12.7 GW – geo: average electrical power consumption of Norway in 1998
• 18.3 GW – tech: current electrical power generation of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric power plant of any type.
• 55 GW – tech peak daily electrical power consumption of Great Britain in November 2008.^[14]
• 74 GW – tech: total installed wind turbine capacity at end of 2006.^[15]
• 190 GW – tech: average power consumption of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket

terawatt (10¹² watts)

• 2 TW – astro: approximate power generated between the surfaces of Jupiter and its moon Io due to Jupiter's tremendous magnetic field.^[16]
• 3.34 TW – geo: average total (gas, electricity, etc.) power consumption of the US in 2005^[17]
• 16 TW – geo: average total power consumption of the human world in 2010
• 44 TW – geo: average total heat flux from Earth's interior^[18]
• 75 TW – eco: global net primary production (= biomass production) via photosynthesis^{[citation needed]}
• 50 to 200 TW – weather: rate of heat energy release by a hurricane
• 290 TW – tech: the power the Z machine reaches in 1 billionth of a second when it is fired
• 300 TW – tech: power reached by the extremely high-power Hercules laser from the University of Michigan.

petawatt (10¹⁵ watts)

• 1.1 PW – tech: world's most powerful laser pulses by laser still in operation (claimed on March 31, 2008 by Texas Center for High Intensity Laser Science at The University of Texas at Austin).
• 1.25 PW – tech: world's most powerful laser pulses (claimed on May 23, 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.
• 10–100 PW geo: estimated total power output of a Type-I civilization on the Kardashev scale.
• 174.0 PW – astro: total power received by Earth from the Sun

exawatt (10¹⁸ watts)

• 100 EW - tech: Extreme Light Infrastructure laser^{[citation needed]}

zettawatt (10²¹ watts)

• 135 ZW – astro: approximate luminosity of Wolf 359

yottawatt (10²⁴ watts)

• 10-100 YW – geo: estimated total power output of a Type-II civilization on the Kardashev scale.
• 384.6 YW – astro: luminosity of the Sun

Greater than one thousand yottawatts

• 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 × 10⁴⁰W – astro: approximate luminosity of a quasar
• 1 × 10⁴²W – astro: approximate luminosity of the Local Supercluster
• 1 × 10⁴⁵W – astro: approximate luminosity of a gamma-ray burst
• 2 × 10⁴⁹W – astro: approximate total luminosity of all the stars in the observable universe
• 3.63 × 10⁵²W – phys: The Planck power, the basic unit of power in the Planck units.

See also

• Orders of magnitude (voltage)
• World energy resources and consumption
• International System of Units (SI)
• SI prefix

References

1. ^ "Nanoelectromechanical systems face the future". Physics World. February 1, 2001. http://physicsweb.org/article/world/14/2/8. 
2. ^ article was originally published as Los Alamos research paper LAUR-03-6163. December 2003. http://www.homelandsecurity.org/bulletin/Dual%20Benefit/warner_gps_spoofing.html. 
3. ^ ^{a b} CERN. Beam Parameters and Definitions". Table 2.2. Retrieved September 13, 2008
4. ^ http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JacquelineLing.shtml
5. ^ http://www.gearypacific.com/ComfortZone/14%20The%20People%20Load.pdf^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "GeForce GTX 480 Tortured by FurMark: 300W and Earplugs Required!". Geeks3D.com. March 28, 2010. http://www.geeks3d.com/20100328/geforce-gtx-480-tortured-by-furmark-300w-and-earplugs-required/. Retrieved August 9, 2010. 
7. ^ Ball, D; Burrows C, Sargeant AJ (1999 March). "Human power output during repeated sprint cycle exercise: the influence of thermal stress.". Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 79 (4): 360–6. PMID 10090637. 
8. ^ ^{a b} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption
9. ^ ^{a b} http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7241e/w7241e05.htm
10. ^ http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amclasses.html
11. ^ http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmclasses.html
12. ^ http://www.controleng.com/blog/820000282/post/1100035510.html
13. ^ http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Japan/Electricity.html
14. ^ National Grid electricity consumption statistics
15. ^ World Wind Energy Association Statistics (PDF).
16. ^ [1] – Nasa: Listening to shortwave radio signals from Jupiter
17. ^ U.S energy consumption by source, 1949–2005, Energy Information Administration accessed May 25, 2007
18. ^ Dumé, Belle (July 27, 2005). "Geoneutrinos make their debut". Physics World. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/7/16/1. "Figure 1 Radiogenic heat in the Earth"