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I’d like to highlight a few ideas that I have found work in my residence and of course if you have further ideas, don’t hesitate to speak up and comment below.

1> Use a bloody fan for Pete’s sake, and stay cool!- Good grief, even I forget to do this occasionally; running to the thermostat to drop the temperature in the house a degree or two, when a fan would have done it faster and cheaper. Ceiling fans can cool a home up to 8 degrees cooler in minutes.

2> Look for leaks- Just like you do in the winter, so you don’t have to hear the howl of the wind through your home; don’t lose precious coldness to the outside as well. Replace the seal around the doors and windows; or just make sure they are shut when the air in the house is being cooled. As my Mom would say, ” We aren’t air-conditioning the neighborhood, Shut the door!”

3> Keep the heat out- Sun heats up your house sooo fast, it is unbelievable. The sun is great when it is cold but a pain in the neck when it is warm already. A few years back I lived in a studio apartment (~400sqft) with no air-conditioning and the only two windows in the place faced east- the way the sun comes up in case you forgot (wink). Anyway, during the winter, the sun was wonderful! However, in the summer I couldn’t keep cool enough, I once measured the temp in the studio at about 104 degrees one day! Yuck! That taught me to close the shades in the morning and keep them closed until the sun was done shining in my window, then open the windows and try to get a breeze blowing into the room to help cool things down.

4> Use the thermometer wisely- Alright, so you hate the outdoors and can’t stand the thought of opening the windows in the room you sit at with your computer; besides, you aren’t even sure if those windows ever opened.

If you aren’t doing much, just sitting around and watching the telly or surfing on the pc, your metabolic rate slows down almost to the equivalent of sleeping. If it’s still hot, try to live in a temperature that is as evenly matched to the outdoors as possible. That way the air kicks on less and you are then prepared for the great outdoors a bit more and don’t collapse into a puddle on your front step. If you are cold, put a sweater on- stop messing around with the air!

Ok, that’s about it; there are always other little ways to fine tune the cooling factor- I have:
**Worn a wet t-shirt around the studio to keep cool (And there was no contest going on either.)
**Worn a wet towel around my shoulders and neck
**Stuck a bowl of ice in front of a fan
**Gone to the mall to just have a few moments of air-conditioning
**Drank lots of water to keep my body temperature down