This morning, I had an interesting exchange with one of my colleagues about Energy and Utilities Cloud use cases. During the discussion we’ve also touched general energy market and asked the question how it is that the companies are investing to reduce the cost and improve and automatise their processes , but at the same time the energy prices are stil expensive. It is a nice question valid a wider and longer discussion, but it gave me an idea to think during the day if the energy is realy expensive.
The afternoon I went to my gym to do my regular exercises , and I think during the session I found the answer.
So, start by verifying how much 1 kWh costs you. In my case (in France), I’m paying about €0.20 for 1 kWh. Is that expensive?
So lets see …
Understanding 1 kWh
To grasp the effort involved, we first need to understand what 1 kWh represents. A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy. It is equivalent to the amount of energy consumed when a device uses 1,000 watts (or 1 kilowatt) of power for one hour.
How Much Power Can a Human Generate?
Human beings, when engaging in intense physical activity, can generate a certain amount of power. For example, while pedaling on a stationary bike, a person can typically generate between 100 and 200 watts of power. However, for the sake of this calculation, let’s consider the lower end of this range—100 watts—as a reasonable estimate of the sustained power a person can generate during continuous, vigorous effort.
Calculating the Required Effort
Given that 1 kWh equals 1,000 watt-hours, we can calculate how long it would take for a human to generate this amount of energy at a steady output of 100 watts.
The formula is straightforward:
Since 1 kWh is equal to 1,000 watt-hours, the calculation becomes:
Therefore, a person would need to work continuously for 10 hours, generating 100 watts of power, to produce 1 kWh of energy. Is it worth 0,20 €?
So from this perspective: Is energy expensive ?