Power in Watts and its relevance

• A person having a mass of 100 kilograms who climbs a 3 meter high ladder in 5 seconds is doing work at a rate of about 600 watts. Mass times acceleration due to gravity times height divided by the time it takes to lift the object to the given height gives the rate of doing work or power.^{[notes 1]}
• A laborer over the course of an 8-hour day can sustain an average output of about 75 watts; higher power levels can be achieved for short intervals and by athletes.^[1]

• A medium-sized passenger automobile engine is rated at 50 to 150 kilowatts^[2] – while cruising it will typically yield half that amount.
• A typical household incandescent light bulb has a power rating of 25 to 100 watts; fluorescent lamps typically consume 5 to 30 watts to produce a similar amount of light.

• A typical coal power station produces around 600–700 megawatts. A typical unit in a nuclear power plant has an electrical power output of 900–1300 MW.