On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:09:29 +0100, "Roger Mills"
mused:

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Des wrote:

Hello

Is it possible to buy a device that I can fit myself which will give
me a clear indication of my current rate of electricity consumption.
. Ideally I'd like a portable device which can show pence/hour,
cumulative cost etc and maybe even predict/calculate my electricity
bill.
Yes, I know I have a meter, but that's in the garage and doesn't
really give me all the info I'd like. I did google around a bit but
couldn't really find what I was looking for. I'm sure I've seen these
devices on the telly.
Many Thanks for any pointers.

Des

There are plenty of plug-in devices (such as those sold by Maplins) which
will monitor the energy consumed by whatever is plugged into a single 13A
socket, including calculating the cost - but it sounds as if you want to to
it for the whole house.

There are ammeters which will clamp round a cable, and display the current
passing through the cable - by some inductive means which doesn't require an
electrical connection to be made -

These need to be clamped round a phase conductor _only_ so would mean
stripping bits of insulation of all your flexible cables! (Not
recomended btw).

but I don't know whether any of those
will integrate the measurement over a period of time in order to calculate
amp-hours (or watt-hours if they also take voltage into account) - let alone
calculate your electricty bill.

They can, if you go for one of the more expensive OTT for domestic
measurement ones.
--
Regards,
Stuart.