Quote Originally Posted by darpin
There's this common problem with broadcast, where in order to double your power output, you need to consume the square of your original power.
Just to be clear, so that those who have some knowledge of this subject don't wind up scratching their heads, this is a rule of thumb which refers to the doubling of the received power by squaring the transmitter output (at least this is what I am 90% certain you are referring to). This is the so-called inverse-square law. This law only applies accurately to a point-source isotropic radiator - that is, one which transmits equally in all directions, and appears pointlike from the point of view of the receiver. This doesn't scale well to grow lighting which is neither isotropic nor pointlike. With suitable reflectors, doubling input power approximates a doubling of received power.