There's one thing that I've found that works really well for keeping your house a little cooler when it starts to get hot and sticky around here. I try to remember to close all the windows in our house and many of the shades before I leave for work in the am. As long as the house has cooled down during the night, it helps to keep the hot air out and when you enter the house from the heat outside - it actually feels like it's being cooled in some way. On the weekends - when we're home - we do the same - and by afternoon will might add a few ceiling fans to the mix to continue the cool down. As evening sets and it starts to cool down outside - open the windows and curtains and let the cooler air in if you're not air conditioning. We find that we only turn on our air conditioning on the hottest and most humid days - just long enough to cool the room down that we're in, and only air condition key rooms like the living room.