Power bills got you down, and you can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong because you’re trying to do so much right?

The Alliance to Save Energy wants you to realize the most from your efforts to reduce electricity consumption, so they’ve released this checklist for you to consider as you try to trim those galloping electric bills:

1 – If the payoff from your home fleet of energy efficient products doesn’t seem to be reducing your electric bill, ask yourself is it the “dreaded Snackwell effect”? Are you gulping energy in the belief that your more efficient computer, TVs and refrigerator will curb the bill so significantly you no longer have to worry? This phenomenon, akin to dieters indulging on low-calorie foods (like Snackwells) because they estimate that they’re consuming fewer calories overall, could be giving you a false perception of the energy-tightening you’ve done.

2. Have you added big energy users – like a big screen TV that doesn’t carry the Energy Star seal – that are undermining your other energy efficiency actions?  Look at what you’re plugging in around the house.

3 – Have energy rates increased in your area? This could account for why your bill is static despite taking strong steps to cut back.

4 – Are you staying home more in this down economy? Watching movies at home, working from home. All these activities consume electricity.

And we might add…

5 – Keeping those TVs/VCR/DVRs on a power strip, which you turn off during the day, can reduce your household’s consumption of “phantom power”, that small, but cumulative trickle of energy that’s used by electronics that are plugged in, even though they’re not turned on.

For more tips on saving energy at home, see the Alliance’s list of ideas.   www.ase.org/consumers. The Alliance is a coalition of business, government, consumer and advocacy groups, founded in 1977.

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The idea of living in a truly sustainable green environment is a homeowner’s dream: Lower energy bills, healthier materials,

Photo: Barley & Pfeiffer Architects

Overhangs provide protection from the sun.

the satisfaction of “doing the right thing.” But with our slumping U.S. economy, many worry about holding onto their home — let alone building a new one. To most, a new green home will never be more than a dream.

Green retrofitting, or adapting an older building to greener standards, opens the door. The U.S. Green Building Council has identified 11 ways to retrofit your home. Some are as simple as programming your thermostat at 78 F or higher in summer, and 62 F or lower in winter. More elaborate, and perhaps expensive, are switching to green power and exploring solar technology solutions.

So where to begin? Green Right Now went to LEED-accredited architect and building scientist Peter Pfeiffer for advice. Along with partner Alan Barley, Pfeiffer founded Barley & Pfeiffer Architects on a commitment to environmentally responsive green building more than two decades ago.

We sat down with Pfeiffer in his Austin office to tap his experience and posed the questions: ‘How can I make my existing home greener? What’s the smart approach?’ His recommendations follow.

Low-cost Tips for Green Retrofitting

• Tighten up your home

I’ll start with the idea of making your home more energy efficient. It’s important because it affects so many things: Your comfort, the environment, air pollution, global warming. All because we generate excessive electricity for our inefficient homes.

There are little things you can do that make a big difference — reducing air leaks in your house is huge. I was formerly chairman of Austin’s Resource Management Commission that oversaw the birth of the Green Building Program and other energy conservation programs. Some gave away fluorescent lights or paid you rebates to buy a more efficient air conditioner.

We soon realized that to reach our goal of reducing what we call “peak demand” at power plants, the single most-effective initiative was the weatherization program. It offers residents money to have their house caulked and weather stripped. It’s by far the most effective program in the city, because it saves more energy than anything else.

Here’s an analogy. You can wear a winter coat and if it’s not buttoned up, the heat will escape out your chest. It doesn’t matter how thick the coat is, you’ll still catch cold. It’s the same with a house. If you have an open window and it’s a winter day, it doesn’t matter how much insulation is in the walls; all the heat will go out the window. So it’s important to weather strip your doors and make sure your windows close tightly.

• Block solar radiation

What causes a building to need air conditioning besides leaks? Solar radiation and humidity coming in from the outside. So stop radiation before it comes in through the glass by shading the windows and the roof. That should be obvious, but to a lot of people, it’s not. They think closing the blinds is all they need to do, but the radiation has already come in. It’s already infiltrated the building.