Is there a device available that will measure the total consumption of electricity for an entire house? Something that can go on the circuit box, perhaps, and tell us the consumption of electricity at any given instant?
Look into energy curb. I have one and its pretty nifity.
Ted 5000 or Ted Pro home
http://www.theenergydetective.com/compare
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All you need is this but I strongly suggest you get an electician to hook it up
https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-Aeon-Labs-ZW095-Energy/dp/B00XD8WZX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480541159&sr=8-1&keywords=aeon+labs+energy
Here is what it looks like hooked up
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Found CURB here, very pricy:
This looks pretty cool, especially for the price. I can see it won’t report on each circuit but all I need to do is turn things on and off to find the electricity hogs. Sadly, I suspect the culprit is my hot water heater 
Gee… Your circuit box has lots of empty space to put the Aeotec coil clamps around. Mine is a tight squeeze.
There’s not particularly special electrical knowledge needed except to keep in mind that the main power company incoming cables (which you is what you clamp around) are always hot high-voltage (120v each, right… phased together to 220v?).
You should shut off the main breaker to help avoid any shocks from the individual circuits, but you usually cannot shut-off the main inputs … since they are before the main breaker. They live between your power company power meter and your main circuits. Sure would be nice to have an extra breaker.
Heavy insulated gloves plus obviously avoiding touching any uninsulated wires is a start. The main worry: If a one of those big cables comes loose and touches your expose body … face, arm, etc… 
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As an electrical engineer may I throw my two cents in?
Of course, please do.
You failed.
Copper/zinc alloy and breaker panels cause big arc flash 
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Want it cheap. Check this out
http://www.zwaveproducts.com/shop/black-friday-deals/z-wave-smart-energy-meter
Just picked up three. Not sure how they can get them that cheap
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Sorry been a long day.
I already threw my hat in the ring, I use Ted pro. Monitors consumpution, generator and solar integration, ups integration, sends notifications when power out or too much or brown out etc, integrated with ST through IFTTT … So I’m partial to that.
Did I mention discount on home owners insurance
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That’s the same thing that is $99 on Amazon???
EDIT: This one is a DSB9104 an the more expensive one on Amazon is a ZW095. I have no idea what the difference is but I’m checking…
So the $10 one is the first edition and the $99 one is the second edition. The Aeotec web site is next to useless when trying to figure out the difference. There is no information about the old one, and about the new one it says:
Improved accuracy.
The first energy monitor we made recorded basic electricity usage, but our latest model takes it to a whole new level. Now you’ll have access to all the data you need, whether that’s the amount of watts your home is using or the amount of kilowatt-hours you should be charged for, and all in real-time.
I have four of the gen1, whole house, dryer, stove, spare. Very easy to install and use. Gen 2 calculates amps which i don’t really need since I get watts and kwh’s already. I can find voltage to compute amps with my kill-a-watt.
The more expensive solutions are probably somewhat more accurate but I honestly don’t think it’s worth the price. I’m trying to get a good estimate of power use, not a per watt accounting. 
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Well, since P = I * E, and we know E (electromotive force in volts) is probably right about 120VAC (I just measured mine at ~121.3) intensity (current in amps) is easily calculated using I = P / 121.3. So if P = 500 watts, then intensity (current) would be 4.12 amps.
So unless we need to know very precisely the current consumption, we don’t need to measure line voltage.
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The Gen 2 came about specifically because folks wanted more accuracy, and, thus, needed to measure voltage concurrently with current.
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Well if people want to pay $99 for that then that’s up to them. I don’t think it’s worth that. Actually at $10 per unit I decided to get two more, for the water heater and the clothing dryer.
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Thanks for the tip! For $10, why not pick up a few? 
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It’s good to have the option and I suppose there are real reasons to get the gen2, I just can’t think of one. I think I paid 15-20 for each of mine during sales, so this is a real good price.
Is the conversion from measured current to watts done in the device firmware or is it done in the device handler or smartapp? Watching my line voltage for a bit seems to indicate that it varies from a low of 121.1 to a high of 121.6, with most of the readings between 121.2 and 121.5. So if I can tweak the software to base watts upon measured current and voltage at 121.35 I would think I would always be pretty close.