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.