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.

1 yoctowatt

(10^-24 watts)

1 zeptowatt

(10^-21 watts)

• ~10 zW - approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal as received on earth by 70 meter DSN antenna.

1 attowatt

(10^-18 watts)

• 1 aW - approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems is overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.[1] (http://physicsweb.org/article/world/14/2/8)

1 femtowatt

(10^-15 watts)

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

1 picowatt

(10^-12 watts)

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

1 nanowatt

(10^-9 watts)

1 microwatt

(10^-6 watts)

• 1 μW - approximate consumption of a quartz wristwatch

1 milliwatt

(10^-3 watts)

• 5 mW - laser in a CD-ROM drive [2] (http://sharp-world.com/products/device/ctlg/laser/)
• 5-10 mW - laser in a DVD player
• 100 mW - laser in a CD-R drive

1 watt

• 5 W -- maximum power output of a CB or hand-held radio transmitter
• 20-40 W -- approximate power consumption of the human brain
• 30 W -- the power of the typical household tube light
• 60 W -- the power of the typical household light bulb
• 100 W -- approximate average power used by the human body
• 290 W -- approximately 1000 BTU/hour
• 745.7 W -- 1 horsepower
• 750 W -- the amount of sunshine falling on a square metre of the Earth's surface on a clear day

1 kilowatt

(10³ watts)

• 1.36 kW -- power received from the Sun at the Earth's orbit by one square metre
• up to 2 kW -- approximate short time power output of sprinting professional cyclists
• 1 kW to 2 kW -- heat output of a domestic electric kettle.
• 2.2 kW -- per capita average power use of the world in 2001
• 11.4 kW -- per capita average power use in the U.S. in 2001
• 40 kW to 200 kW -- approximate range of power output of typical automobiles
• 50 kW to 100 kW -- ERP of clear channel AM stations

1 megawatt

(10⁶ watts)

• 3 MW - Mechanical power output of a diesel locomotive
• 10.3 MW -- Electrical power output of Togo
• 190 MW -- peak power output of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier
• 900 MW -- electric power output of a CANDU nuclear reactor
• 959 MW -- average electrical power consumption of Zimbabwe in 1998

1 gigawatt

(10⁹ watts)

• 1.3 GW - electric power output of Manitoba Hydro Limestone hydroelectric generating station
• 2.074 GW - peak power generation of Hoover Dam
• 3 GW - approximate peak power generation of the world's largest nuclear reactor
• 12.6 GW -- electrical power generation of the Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric power plant
• 12.7 GW -- average electrical power consumption of Norway in 1998
• 18.2 GW -- electrical power generation of the Three Gorges Dam in China when complete
• 424.3 GW -- average electrical power consumption of the U.S. in 2001

1 terawatt

(10¹² watts)

• 1.7 TW -- average electrical power consumption of the world in 2001
• 3.327 TW -- average total power consumption of the U.S. in 2001
• 13.5 TW -- average total power consumption of the world in 2001

1 petawatt

(10¹⁵ watts)

• 1.25 × 10¹⁵ watts -- world's most powerful laser (claimed on 23 May 1996 by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory).
• 4 × 10¹⁵ watts -- estimated total heat flux transported by Earth's atmosphere and oceans away from the equator towards the poles.
• 1.75 × 10¹⁷ W -- total power received by the Earth from the Sun

1 exawatt

(10¹⁸ watts)

1 zettawatt

(10²¹ watts)

• 1.35 × 10²³W - Approximate luminosity of Wolf 359

1 yottawatt

(10²⁴ watts)

• 3.86×10²⁶W - Luminosity of the Sun

Higher and Lower orders of magnitude

It has been proposed [Shuch, H. Paul, The large and the small of it (Letter). Science News 143(14): 211, April 3, 1993] to extend the scale in both directions, by continuing to work backward through the alphabet. Thus 10^-27 becomes xocto, 10^30 becomes wocto, etc., through to acto (10^-94). Similarly, 10^+27 becomes Xotta, 10^+30 becomes Wotta, etc., clear through to Atta (10^+94).

• 3.31 × 10³¹W - Approximate luminosity of Hadar
• 1.23 × 10³²W - Approximate luminosity of Deneb
• 5 × 10³⁶W - Approximate luminosity of the Milky way galaxy.
• 1 × 10⁴⁵W - Approximate luminosity of a Gamma ray burster