measuring shop power

[fusername]

I have a garage space attached to the house, with three 20 or 30 amp lines running from the house. I want to meter the power consumption out in the garage. I wanted to just throw an inductive ampemeter/watt meter around it, but I would need to seperate the conducters for that. I could put a dummy junction, seperate the conducters on all three, then do the inductive pickup. If there was just one big one coming in I would try and hunt down an old meter and see if an electritian wouldn't wire it in for me, but 3 commercalmeters feels kinda silly. can those be bought? scrap yard? cheap solution?

any electritians wanna chime in what the best thing to do is? any ball park idea the cost of such an installation? Thanks folks!

[SCOTTRODS]

Try these puppies (below).... 3 of these wouldn't be too expensive.... Of course I don't know how it would do for a 220 source....
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/P3%20Int ... tgodDD-vZg

These guys have pondered the 220 volt variety of measure as well.... using the same meters.... and modifying them of course.
http://www.techenclave.com/topic/477797 ... -for-220v/

[fusername]

ive seen those before, but i am looking for something i can tap into a full breaker. i am capable of building my own, but since its going to be hard wired to mains, the building is mostly empty, all wood, etc i dont want to make any fire hazards.

also that post reminds me of the woooonderfull possibility of having w220 v in my workspace. cheap high power welders,, here i come

[Dale M.]

If you have smart meter.... Monitor house usage over a time period (days) to get baseline (no work in shop for those days and auto run devices (compressor) turned off) ..... Operate shop over same time period (days), calculate difference.... You have shop load.....

Dale