Hi Emily,
In Terry Kucera's answer to your question, she said that the energy released in a CME was about 1032 ergs. By doing a few unit conversions, we can compare this energy to the electrical energy you use every month. An erg is a unit scientists use to measure energy in the cgs system of units, where distance is measured in centimeters (cm), mass is measured in grams (g), and time is measured in seconds (s). Another useful system of units used by scientists is the SI system, in which masses are measured in kilograms (kg), distances in meters (m), and time in seconds (s). The unit of energy in the SI system is called the Joule (J). Both the erg and the Joule can be written in terms of other units:
1 erg = 1 g-cm2/s2 = 1/10,000,000 J = 1/107 J
1 J = 1 kg-m2/s2 = 10,000,000 ergs = 107 ergs
In the SI system the energy released by a CME is about 1032 ergs x 1/107 = 1025 J
In the SI system, the unit used to describe the rate of energy release per unit time (or power), is the Watt (W). You may have noticed that the lightbulbs we use give their power consumption in Watts on the package. If you take a look at your parent's electric bill, you will see that the power company charges you for the amount of electrical energy you used in kWh, or kilowatt-hours. To get the electrical energy you use in kWh, they just take the power consumption in kW x the amount of time.
A kilowatt is just 1kW= 1000 W = 1000 J/s.
A kilowatt-hour 1 kWh=1000 J/s x 60 minutes/hour x 60 seconds/minute = 3,600,000 J = 3.6x106 J
If we take the CME energy of 1025 J divided by the conversion factor, 3.6x106 J/kWh, we find that the energy released by the CME is 2.8 x 1018 kWh.
For comparison, your refrigerator probably uses about 180 kWh of energy every month. A typical CME releases enough energy to power 1.6 x 1016 (that's 16,000,000,000,000,000) refrigerators for 1 month, or 1 refrigerator for 1.3 x 1015 years. That's a lot of refrigerators!
A fun thing to do when you go home tonight is to ask your parents for an old electric bill and try comparing the energy released by a CME to the amount of energy you use in one month.
Kris