Richard Stuebi asks, What is Energy Worth?:
Everyone pays attention to — and often whines about — the price or cost of energy. I would like to pose a different question: what is the value of energy? What is energy really worth?
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A healthy adult can exert about 100 watts of effort for a reasonably sustained period. [...] Thus, over the course of a 10-hour day, a human might produce 1000 watt-hours — or 1 kilowatt-hour. From your local utility, you probably pay about a dime for a kilowatt-hour. On the other hand, if you were to pay that adult a (low) wage of $5/hour for that degree of effort, that kilowatt-hour would cost $50.In other words, electricity is priced about 1/500 the equivalent value of human effort.
Oil is even more of a steal. There are 3412 Btu in a kilowatt-hour, meaning that an adult can produce about 3412 Btu of energy effort in a 1o-hour day — or 341 Btus per hour. In a barrel of oil, there are 6.2 million Btus — equivalent to over 18,000 man-hours, which would cost over $90,000 at a (low) wage of $5/hour.
At $60/barrel, oil is priced about 1/1500 the equivalent value of human effort.
And we complain that energy is expensive? Try replacing our taken-for-granted energy forms with the work of humans — and paying a wage for it!