Yeah, I think a lot of the shock comes from the fact that suddenly their rate is higher when they haven’t changed any of their normal habits! Doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to make changes to save electricity (for example, I used to leave the above-stove light on at night as a nightlight and now I don’t).

Your point about making sure there isn’t some major factor using energy that didn’t exist before is a good suggestion, but I think most people are just surprised by how much their costs have changed when everything else has been a constant.