Envious about some things some of you can do - no basements here in So Cal for the most part. We tried to have a whole house fan in - sort of like the one I think was mentioned but our house didn't have the proper venting. We can have the other kind because no one wants to mess with our cement roof. No ceiling fans except one in the master bath and if it is on so is another light and it helps to heat things up. None of the other rooms are wired in such a way that we could add one either - I would love one in the bedrooms but none have ceiling lights that we could switch out.

We do keep our blinds closed and one thing that is helping is late in the day when the sun is really beating on the front of our house is we open the garage a little bit - maybe 6 inches and let some of the air circulate - noticed our neighbors doing this and it really does help - it helps the garage cool a bit and then the bedrooms up above are a little cooler than they normally are as they normally would just bake in the afternoon sun (can't plant trees in front as it is a driveway).

The last couple of years we have been using regular fans much more - sometimes even end up sitting or sleeping right in front of one.

We have a couple of inflatable pools that we use and then we have a couple of portable umbrellas that we put over them. Pools are small but big enough for DS and for my feet - amazing how when your feet are cool you don't feel the heat as bad - as long as you are in the shade though.

We have been doing a ton of grilling and will be doing a lot more of it this summer. I also have a portable roaster - oven type of thing that you can take outside if you want - haven't done it yet but I think I will. I used the oven just briefly the other day and the house went up about 10 degrees. I will also have to start looking for some good summery crockpot recipes - most of the ones I can think of are more wintery and not something I would want to eat right now.

OK, I'm kinda confused right now. Some of you have said that you "only run the AC at night". Why is this? Is it because you are gone during the day. I must have the logic wrong. What I do is run it off & on during the day. At night, it has cooled and we don't run it. Am I doing it wrong?? lol Help me understand, please

All of the mentioned of course. But also, running an energy efficient fan in front of ice (like an ice block in a tray), is a good way for cheap air conditioning

So Cal Edison will give you a discounted rate in the summer if you allow them to put a shut off box on your AC. they can shut down your AC in case of an energy crisis. We've done this for the last 2 years and never had a problem. We even got a $50 target card for signing up.

We need to get an attic fan! It would pay for itself the very first year!

The only thing I can think of that would reduce my summer cooling bill would be divorcing my DH!!!!! He keeps our house so cold we could hang meat in it!!! No JOKE!!!!! When my poor mother was alive and would come stay with us she would FREEZE!! She'd sit around with a sweater on & a blanket over her and just FREEZE!!!

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Great ideas. Expecially the attic fan. We got the attic reinsulated a couple of years ago and that has significantly helped but the attic fan would just be more of a plus. We live in Southern Florida and it is normally really hot here in the summer, so this would make a huge difference.

I am going to the thrift store today. I seen some heavy curtains yesterday that would look good in my living room, but didn't have any cash on me to get them. Hopefully they will still be there. That will cut down on the heat coming into the room full of windows.

I try not to use the oven as much because it heats up the house so much also.

No basements here but a nice lake to jump into down the road that the kids spend a lot of time at to keep cooled off.

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Our electric bill has been at least $300+ a month. I read somewhere that if you unplugged everything you did not use it would help. So after much complaining from m husband about our bill i went around the house and unpluged EVERYTHING, except for the things that have to like the frigde and oven, alarm clock. After that the next months bill was $160!!! And were still able to run the a/c and heater when we need too.

I try to close the drapes and shades on the sunny side of the house during the day - especially if we're gone our outdoors. (It's hard to have the house dark when you're trying to work inside!) If the outdoor air is cooler than the indoor air, we open the windows/doors, especially in the evening and during the night. We use fans in all of the bedrooms and have a small window air conditioner in the master bedroom - this cool air we try to blow out into the rest of the bedrooms using a fan. If you can afford it, adding extra insulation into your attic or walls is also very helpful - we did this a couple of years ago and noticed a big difference!

These are all great ideas. We keep our shades closed and try our best not to turn the a/c on. We use the fans a lot too.