this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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3,442 Calories (14,388 kJ) is required to generate 2 kWh at a (generous) overall storage-work-storage efficiency of 50%.
For comparison, that is roughly:
Rule of thumb efficiency of humans is about 25%, which is about the kJ to Calorie conversion, too
so 14kJ of energy output burns ~14,000 Calories.
True, I only included kJ equivalent because some countries use kJ on nutritional panels instead of Calories. Actual conversion rate of human energy stores to usable power is, at a guess, more like
Calories * 0.25 * 0.6 * 0.8 - dt
where t is time, d is the self-discharge rate of the battery, 0.6 is the efficiency of the generator, and 0.8 is the efficiency of the battery.
So, user better eat their wheaties.