| Solar power in all directions | 1027 |
| Solar power incident on earth | 1017 |
| Solar power avg. on U.S. | 1015 |
| Solar power consumed in photosynthesis | 1014 |
| U.S. power consumption rate | 1013 |
| U.S. electrical power | 1012 |
| Large electrical generating plant | 109 |
| Automobile at 40 mph | 105 |
| Solar power on roof of U.S. home | 104 |
| U.S. citizen consumption rate | 104 |
| Electric stove | 104 |
| Solar power per m2 on U.S. surface | 102 |
| One light bulb | 102 |
| Food consumption rate per capita U.S. | 102 |
| Electric razor | 101 |
| gallon of gasoline | 1.3x108 |
| AA battery | 103 |
| standard cubic foot of natural gas (SCF) | 1.1x106 |
| candy bar | 106 |
| barrel of crude oil (contains 42 gallons) | 6.1x109 |
| pound of coal | 1.6 x 107 |
| pound of gasoline | 2.2 x 107 |
| pound of oil | 2.4 x 107 |
| pound of Uranium-235 | 3.7 x 1013 |
| ton of coal | 3.2 x 1010 |
| ton of Uranium-235 | 7.4 x 1016 |
| 1 Btu | 1055 joules | or | 778 ftlb | or | 252 cal |
| 1 calorie | 4.184 joules | ||||
| 1 food Calorie | 1000 calories | or | |||
| 1 hphr | 2.68 106 joules | or | 0.746 kwh | ||
| 1 kwh | 3.61106 joules | or | 3413 Btu | ||
| 1 eV | 1.610-19 joules |
Coal: 9000 tons/day of 1 "unit train load" (100 90 - ton cars/day)
Oil: 40,000 bbl/day or 1 tanker per week (note: "bbl" means barrels)
Natural Gas: 2.4 l08 SCF/day
Uranium (as 235U): 3 kg/day
Note: 1000 MWe utility, at 60% load factor, generates
5.3109 kwh/year, enough for a city of about 1 million
people in the U.S.A.
(Note: MWE is an abbreviation for megawatts-electrical
output)
U.S. Total Energy Consumption (1990)
= 82.11015 Btu (82.1 Quads) = 38.8 MBPD
oil equivalent = 86.6109 GJ
1 barrel of oil = driving 1400 km (840 miles) in average car
1 kwh electricity
= 1½ hours of operation of standard air conditioner
= 92 days for electric clock
= 24 hours for color TV
90 pounds of coal
125 pounds of ovendried wood
8 gallons of motor gasoline
10 therms of natural gas
1.1 day energy consumption per capita in the U.S.
Power is the amount of energy used per unit time
- or how fast energy is being used. If we multiply a unit of power
by a unit of time, the result is a unit of energy. Example: kilowatt-hour.
Unit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 watt | 1 joule/s | or | 3.41 Btu/hr | ||
| 1 hp | or | 2545 Btu/hr | or | 746 watts |
| 1 Btu per hour | 0.293 W |
| 1 joule per second | 1 W |
| 1 kilowatt-hour per day | 41.7 W |
| 1 food Calorie per minute | 69.77 W |
| 1 horsepower | 745.7 W |
| 1 kilowatt | 1000 W |
| 1 Btu per second | 1054 W |
| 1 gallon of gasoline per hour | 39 kW |
| 1 million barrels of oil per day | 73 GW |
| Creation of the Universe | 1068 |
| Emission from a radio galaxy | 1055 |
| E = mc2 of the Sun | 1047 |
| Supernova explosion | 1044 |
| Yearly solar emission | 1034 |
| Earth moving in orbit | 1033 |
| D-D fusion energy possible from worlds oceans | 1031 |
| Earth spinning | 1029 |
| Earth's annual sunshine | 1025 |
| Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction theory meteorite | 1023 |
| Energy available from earth's fossil fuels | 1023 |
| Yearly U.S. sunshine | 1023 |
| Annual tidal friction | 1020 |
| U.S. energy consumption | 1020 |
| Exploding volcano (Krakatoa) | 1019 |
| Severe earthquake (Richter 8) | 1018 |
| 100-megaton H-bomb | 1017 |
| Fission one ton of Uranium | 1017 |
| E = mc2 of 1 kilogram | 1017 |
| Burning a million tons of coal | 1016 |
| Energy to create Meteor Crater in Arizona | 1016 |
| 1000-MW power station (1 year) | 1016 |
| Hurricane | 1015 |
| Thunderstorm | 1015 |
| Atomic Bomb (Hiroshima) | 1014 |
| E = mc2 of 1 gram | 1014 |
| Energy to put the space shuttle in orbit | 1013 |
| Energy used in one year per capita U.S. | 1012 |
| Atlantic crossing (one way) of jet airliner | 1012 |
| Saturn V rocket | 1011 |
| Energy to heat a house for one year | 1011 |
| D-D fusion energy possible from 1 gal. of water | 1011 |
| One year of electricity for the average house | 1010 |
| Lightening bolt | 1010 |
| Burning a cord of wood | 1010 |
| One gallon of gasoline | 108 |
| 100-W light bulb left on for one day | 107 |
| Human daily diet | 107 |
| One day of heavy manual labor | 107 |
| Explosion of 1 kg of TNT | 106 |
| Woman running for 1 hr | 106 |
| Candy bar | 106 |
| Burning match | 103 |
| 1AA battery (alkaline) | 103 |
| Hard-hit baseball | 103 |
| Lifting an apple 1 m | 1 |
| Human heartbeat | 0.5 |
| Depressing typewriter key | 10-2 |
| Cricket chirrup | 10-3 |
| Hopping flea | 10-7 |
| Proton accelerated to high energy (one trillion eV) | 10-7 |
| Fission of 1 uranium nucleus | 10-11 |
| Energy released in D-D fusion | 10-12 |
| Electron mass-energy | 10-13 |
| Chemical reaction per atom | 10-18 |
| Photon of light | 10-19 |
| Energy of room-temperature air molecule | 10-21 |
| Electricity | 1 Kwh | $0.10 | appliances, motors |
| Gasoline | 1 gallon | 1.20 | transportation |
| Natural Gas | 1 Therm | 0.60 | heating |
| AA battery | 1 battery | 0.80 | portable electronics |
| Milky Way candy bar | 1 bar | 0.60 | food |
"Developed" countries average (1990):
The rest of the world (1990):
(billion persons) | (terawatts) | |
|---|---|---|