Total infrared luminosity limit of various data sets. Dashed, coloured lines show the limit in various Herschel bands assuming a z = 0 galaxy template (see text, Sect. 2.3.4, for details). The black line traces the lowest coloured line at each redshift and represents the sensitivity limit of the infrared-selected sample. The magenta line is the equivalent using z = 5 templates. The 5σ sensitivity limit of the Spitzer 24 μm data is shown as the black dot-dashed line. The sensitivity limit of the VLA 3 GHz Large Project (dashed black line) is also shown, assuming q_TIR = 2.64 (Bell 2003) and a radio spectral index of α = − 0.7.