Suspiciously high gas bills - Northern Ireland - Calor Gas

cglatot

Hi all,

I live in a relatively small 2 bedroom flat with my friend in Derry, Northern Ireland. We are both renters, and it is a top floor flat. He's been living here since August '15 and I moved in mid Feb '16. The first bill for gas came in (quarterly billing) since I've been here and I was shocked to find out that it was nearly £500! And that's JUST for the gas. He's not very money savvy and would be prone to just pay it, but this seems absurdly high to me.

Since I moved in, I made a lot of repairs to the flat, sealed windows, cracks, etc, and we managed to cut down the amount the heating is on as well as the intensity. Yet, this bill for the past 3 months is more than the one over winter! We only had the heating on on average 6-8 hours per day. And many weekends it was off completely because we both work / travel a lot.

Their website is rubbish, so I can't get details, but what I got from my friend were the following numbers:

Reading 29/01/16: 5209 units
Reading 29/04/16: 5446 units

Don't ask me what units those are in, I have no idea. I also can't find the gas meters on the property - I think they are behind lock boxes outside. Now assuming the standing charge is about 24p per day (from an old bill), that is £22.02 for the 91 days. This means that the cost for 237 units is £473.54, which works out at ~£2.00 per unit. Does that sound right?

Do these numbers look right for the cost?
Do the numbers look right for the usage of units?
Do we have any alternatives to Calor Gas? There doesn't seem to be a lot of choice / resources in Northern Ireland.

Thanks in advance