>True...unplugged....unpowered....the crux of the matter is I
>have control on the source side of the plug and not the device
>plugged into the wall.  The device could be a wall wart, a
>regular plug,


Ahh, suddenly the light turns on ... you are wanting to see if a load is 
plugged into your supply ...

I would suggest you look at the LEM Minisens devices, neat little hall 
effect sensor in an SOIC-8 package, designed for sensing current in PC 
tracks or adjacent wires. By adjusting the effective number of turns of 
primary around the chip you can adjust the low current sensitivity.

You will probably need to screen the device against electrostatic coupling 
from the mains wiring, but that is not impossible.

I phoned the UK representatives when I saw them announced in the local 
Electronics Weekly, and got a couple of samples plus one of the evaluation 
kits for free.

http://www.lem.com/


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