How much energy is an SEU?

After
seeing Terl Obar's estimate of the energy of an SEU, I decided to do
a few of my own. This is all just for fun and I doubt if there's a
single value that will come out of this and I don't think one of them
is going to be “right.” I just want to see what the numbers come
out to be. It would be really cool to have a single value that could
be used as a scale but I think that's unlikely. Please note that
there are other ways of doing things and that all of these estimates
have error bars you could fly a Star Destroyer through. Sideways.
Some
quick definitions:
Joule
(J) metric unit of energy (1 J = the amount of energy that raises a
cubic centimeter of water 1 degree Celsius)Calorie:
Here, these are food calories, not the smaller scientific ones. 1 Cal
= 4184 JWatt
(w) a measure of power. 1 w = 1 J per second. Kilowatt-hour
(kwh) Confusingly, this is a measure of energy, not power. 1Kwh =
3600 kj

On
to the estimates:
Terl
Obar's Laser
100
J per SEU

Project
Rho's laser
1-10kJ
per shot depending on laser efficiency and target composition. 

I
tend to think that energy weapons are less efficient than kinetic
weapons at actually inflicting damage. Here's a table of a few common
rounds and their kinetic energy according to Wikipedia. I'm giving a
range because there are different loads that each have their own
energy levels.
 

<table style="height: 292px" border="1" width="481"><tbody><tr><td>Round </td><td>Muzzle
Energy </td><td> Notes </td></tr><tr><td> Handgun</td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> .22
Short </td><td> 60-100J</td><td> Low powered but can kill</td></tr><tr><td> .22
Long </td><td> 100-150 J</td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> .25
ACP </td><td> 80-100 J </td><td> Often said to not be able to clear a stopped up
nose.</td></tr><tr><td> .380
ACP</td><td> 250 J</td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> 9mm
Parabellum </td><td> 400-500 J </td><td> The famous and common “Nine”</td></tr><tr><td> .357
Magnum </td><td> 1 kJ</td><td> Has the highest kill:hit ratio of any handgun round</td></tr><tr><td> .500
S&W </td><td> 3-4 kJ</td><td> Perhaps the most powerful Handgun</td></tr><tr><td> .44
Magnum </td><td> 1-2 kJ</td><td> Sorry, Harry, no longer the most powerful</td></tr><tr><td> Rifles</td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> 7.62
NATO </td><td> 3.5 kJ</td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> 7.62
Soviet </td><td> 1.5-2.5 kJ</td><td> Ammo weighs a lot more than other rifle rounds</td></tr><tr><td> 5.56
NATO </td><td> 1.3 kJ</td><td> Prone to tumble and break up, increasing damage</td></tr><tr><td> .50
BMG </td><td> 16-20 kJ</td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table> 
What
does this tell us? NOTHING! :) Very powerful rounds can cause
tremendous damage but might overpenetrate, meaning that not all of
the energy gets used killing the target. Even 22 short has caused
deaths. Damage is strongly dependent on hit location, shooter skill,
and most of all luck. But let's ignore all that.Let's
start with the fact that a 1 SEU laser shot does the same damage as a
autopistol/rifle. Also note that a burst does an extra 4d10. I'm
going to call this the burst bonus. So
without that bonus, a machine gun does 6d10 of damage. Let's pretend
that works. If we assume that an autopistol is about equal to a .380
(250 J), that would mean a machine gun is about 1.5 kJ, so it would
be a 5.56 or 7.62 Soviet type round. If we went with 500 J, about the
same as a 9mm, the machine gun would be like the M-60 used today.
Neat.
So
a laser pistol would have an energy output from 250 J to 2500 J,
about the same range from a 380 ACP to a .500 S&W and an SEU
could be 250 J.
But
lasers aren't 100% efficient. Today's lasers are generally 25-30%
although there are systems up to 60% efficient. Frontier tech would
be better but let me give

Blankbeard's
laser input power estimate
1SEU
= 250J – Minimum, 100% efficiency
1
SEU = 2 kJ – 9mm damage, 25% efficiency
1SEU = 1000 J or 1 kJ

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