There are some outside the outlet devices that can measure power going through outlets like these:
But it's pretty massive and 70s looking. Has internet of things permeated to power usage yet?
Electrical – Are there electrical outlet plates or devices that can be put inside the electric box to measure power usage
electrical
Related Solutions
If you're willing to do a little modification, you can use a Kill-A-Watt and hook it up to your computer.
Adafruit has a "Tweet-a-Watt" project that interfaces with a Kill-A-Watt and wirelessly sends the power readings to the receiving unit (which they then hooked up to tweet the current readings)
In the Adafruit forums, I found a guy who was trying to read the Kill-A-Watt directly with an Arduino, instead of wirelessly sending the readings. You could use an Arduino and read the measurements directly into a serial console on your computer and save the results to a file that way.
You will need to replace them (or get an electrician to replace them).
Replacing sockets is a straightforward job:
- Turn off the power to the receptacle.
- Verify that power is off at the receptacle.
- Unscrew the old socket from the box.
- Make a note of which wires go where.
- Remove the wires from the old socket.
- Wire up the new socket - double checking that live -> live, neutral -> neutral and earth -> earth.
- Screw the new socket onto the box.
- Turn the power back on.
This is still a job a householder can do in the UK. However, if you are uncertain about any of the above steps or you think there might be something more serious wrong with the electrics then get an electrician in.
If the plugs aren't holding in the sockets then the sockets are potentially dangerous.
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Best Answer
Yes, If you Google "Smart outlets" and similar phrases you will find outlet replacement products that can be used to monitor the power usage of individual outlets.
I'm not mentioning specific product names here because this isn't an advertising forum and because the actual products available depend on where you are and what year you are reading this.
CNet seem to have reviewed some - only a few do energy monitoring, most are smartphone controlled switches.