The daily high temperatures in our town are now regularly breaking 80F. At the moment it is 82F and we already hit 87F earlier this week. We can usually avoid the use of a swamp cooler or air conditioning with these temperatures as it is really not that hot. However, the winds cause us to have to close our south-west oriented windows which tends to make our home stuffy. What we have been doing to stay cool with temperatures between 80F-105F is pretty simple. Maybe this will be of use to others. 1. Use reflectix (reflective bubble insulation) in South and West facing windows. 2. Leave small east facing windows open (bathroom windows) for some fresh air. 3. Use two small 36W Vornado fans to move air through house. 4. Set swamp cooler thermostat to 80F. This causes the swamp cooler to rarely kick on. 5. Open all windows from 10pm-10am

Tally is the new tenant I came down to meet. He is an Elvis impersonator. Here seen with his dog Marley, the reason he got kicked out of his apartment. In the background the newly installed swamp cooler, the energy sipping eco-solution to air conditioning that Mike proudly recommended. It is actually quite common in the area now that I know what one looks like.