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 from small to large.

Below 1 W

Factor SI prefixValue Value (decibel-milliwatts)Item
10−505.4 × 10−50−463 dBmastro: Hawking radiation power of the ultramassive black hole TON 618.
10−27ronto- 1.64−238 dBmphys: approximate power of gravitational radiation emitted by a 1000 kg satellite in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth.
10−24yocto- 1−210 dBm
10−211−180 dBmbiomed: approximate lowest recorded power consumption of a deep-subsurface marine microbe
10−201−170 dBmtech: approximate power of Galileo space probe's radio signal as received on earth by a 70-meter DSN antenna.
10−18atto- 1−150 dBmphys: approximate power scale at which operation of nanoelectromechanical systems are overwhelmed by thermal fluctuations.
10−161−130 dBmtech: the GPS signal strength measured at the surface of the Earth.
10−162−127 dBmbiomed: approximate theoretical minimum luminosity detectable by the human eye under perfect conditions
10−15femto- 2.5−116 dBmtech: minimum discernible signal at the antenna terminal of a good FM radio receiver
10−141−110 dBmtech: approximate lower limit of power reception on digital spread-spectrum cell phones
10−12pico- 1−90 dBmbiomed: average power consumption of a human cell
10−111.84−77 dBmphys: power lost in the form of synchrotron radiation by a proton revolving in the Large Hadron Collider at 7000 GeV
10−112.9−72 dBmastro: power per square meter received from Proxima Centauri, the closest star known
10−101−68 dBmastro: estimated total Hawking radiation power of all black holes in the observable universe.
10−101.5−68 dBmbiomed: power entering a human eye from a 100-watt lamp 1 km away
10−9nano- 2–15−57 dBm to −48 dBmtech: power consumption of 8-bit PIC microcontroller chips when in "sleep" mode
10−6micro- 1−30 dBmtech: approximate consumption of a quartz or mechanical wristwatch
10−6micro- 3−25 dBmastro: cosmic microwave background radiation per square meter
10−55−13 dBmbiomed: sound power incident on a human eardrum at the threshold intensity for pain.
10−3milli- 1.55−4.7 dBmastro: power per square meter received from the Sun by Sedna at its aphelion
10−3milli- 57 dBmtech: laser in a CD-ROM drive
10−3milli- 5–107 dBm to 10 dBmtech: laser in a DVD player
10−2centi- 718 dBmtech: antenna power in a typical consumer wireless router
10−1deci- 1.221 dBmastro: total proton decay power of Earth, assuming the half life of protons to take on the value 1035 years.
10−1deci- 527 dBmtech: maximum allowed carrier output power of an FRS radio

1 to 102 W

Factor SI prefixValue Item
100W1tech: cellphone camera light
100W1.508astro: power per square metre received from the Sun at Neptune's aphelion
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 × 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household compact fluorescent light bulb
101deca- 2–4 × 101biomed: approximate power consumption of the human brain
101deca- 3–4 × 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household fluorescent tube light
101deca- 6 × 101tech: the power consumption of a typical household incandescent light bulb
102hecto- 1 × 102biomed: approximate basal metabolic rate of an adult human body
102hecto- 1.2 × 102tech: electric power output of solar panel in full sunlight, at sea level
102hecto- 1.3 × 102tech: peak power consumption of a Pentium 4 CPU
102hecto- 2 × 102tech: stationary bicycle average power output
102hecto- 2.76 × 102astro: fusion power output of 1 cubic meter of volume of the Sun's core.
102hecto- 2.9 × 102units: approximately 1000 BTU/hour
102hecto- 3 × 102tech: PC GPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 peak power consumption
102hecto- 4 × 102tech: legal limit of power output of an amateur radio station in the United Kingdom
102hecto- 5 × 102biomed: power output of a person working hard physically
102hecto- units: 1 horsepower
102hecto- 7.5 × 102astro: approximately the amount of sunlight 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 × 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

1030quetta- 1.99 × 1030 Wastro: peak luminosity of the Sun in its thermally-pulsing, late AGB phase
1030quetta- 4.1 × 1030 Wastro: approximate luminosity of Canopus
10312.53 × 1031 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Beta Centauri triple star system
10313.3 × 1031 Wastro: approximate luminosity of Betelgeuse, a highly evolved red supergiant
10321.23 × 1032 Wastro: approximate luminosity of Deneb
10331.26 × 1033 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Pistol Star, an LBV which emits in 10 seconds the Sun's annual energy output
10331.79 × 1033 Wastro: approximate luminosity of R136a1, a massive Wolf-Rayet star and the most luminous single star known
10332.1 × 1033 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Eta Carinae system, a highly elliptical binary of two supergiant blue stars orbiting each other
10344 × 1034 Wtech: approximate power used by a type III civilization in the Kardashev scale.
10365.7 × 1036 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Milky Way galaxy
10372 × 1037 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Local Group, the volume enclosed by our gravitational cosmic horizon
10374 × 1037 Wastro: approximate internal luminosity of the Sun for a few seconds as it undergoes a helium flash.
10382.2 × 1038 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the extremely luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh
10391 × 1039 Wastro: average luminosity of a quasar
10391.57 × 1039 Wastro: approximate luminosity of 3C273, the brightest quasar seen from Earth
10405 × 1040 Wastro: approximate peak luminosity of the energetic fast blue optical transient CSS161010
10411 × 1041 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the most luminous quasars in our universe, e.g., APM 08279+5255 and HS 1946+7658.
10421.7 × 1042 Wastro: approximate luminosity of the Laniakea Supercluster
10423 × 1042 Wastro: approximate luminosity of an average gamma-ray burst
10432.2 × 1043 Wastro: average stellar luminosity in one cubic gigalight-year of space
1045
10461 × 1046 Wastro: record for maximum beaming-corrected intrinsic luminosity ever achieved by a gamma-ray burst
10477.519 × 1047 Wphys: Hawking radiation luminosity of a Planck mass black hole
10489.5 × 1048 Wastro: luminosity of the entire Observable universe ≈ 24.6 billion trillion solar luminosity.
10493.6 × 1049 Wastro: peak gravitational wave radiative power of GW150914, the merger event of two distant stellar-mass black holes. It is attributed to the first observation of gravitational waves.
10523.63 × 1052 Wphys: the unit of power as expressed under the Planck units, at which the definition of power under modern conceptualizations of physics breaks down. Equivalent to one Planck mass-energy per Planck time.