> I am looking for suggestions on the cheapest way to build a circuit
> that will sound an alarm if current is being drawn in a 110VAC circuit.
> I want it to be cheap, cheap and be powered by the 110VAC.

A transformerless supply, a PIC with a comparator (or a plain PIC
and FET might probably work) and a Hall Effect sensor, or some sort
of detector coil, if you want to sense the current from outside the wire.
It'll be cheap-ish but maybe not cheap cheap. There was a thread a
long time ago about someone wanting to detect when the washer-
dryer was on (I think the above was the solution), and [EE] Appliance
Current Sensor from August 2005

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