My brother's exploding power bill.

[wishstar]

6. $160 in height of winter probably not high enough to trigger alert yet

$100 to $200 is very common for small older homes in my area of the south in winter, especially homes using all electric. Some types of heaters cause big spike in bills. If that is the cause, bills should drop soon.

If he is not that high above norm for his neighborhood, the increase alone probably won't trigger flag by electric co. But if electric company gets tip from a suspicious neighbor too, could be problem for authorities to be alerted. I would think though that bill would have to at least go over $200 to trigger concern. Cases I have heard of involving this scenario involved bills in the hundreds of dollars a month.

But it is concerning even if it is just heaters since they can be safety hazard with overheating and wires running over floor if he is not careful.