Power bill still too high. Any ideas on how to get my house cooler during the summer?

I have a four bedroom house and my bill was $400 for June/July. We did the same thing with the light bulbs and we stopped using the oven ... use crock pot or toaster oven instead. Even though the oven is gas the fact it heats up the house is what hurts. Also cook outside on a BBQ instead of inside. What we did to lower it was turn up the temperature during the day to 85 and then just before bed we lower it to 80 and then have it automatically go back up in the middle of the night. We can withstand the heat better during the day than at night. Too miserable trying to sleep. If the outside temps fall below 80 during the night I get up and turn off the air and open the windows. It is a hassle but we lowered the bill by over a $100 a month

take a cool shower right before bedtime (or a bath even,) then you sleep better with a warmer room

Best Idea::::::: Get naked at your house, with or without people.. Then take all your clothes and get them moist. Put them in the freezer for 30mins+. now find something to do in the 30mins while your naked...... Then get your self wet. Thats if you arent wet already... but I mean with water.. then get in front of a fan and get blown all over. then get these frozen clothes and put them on and run around like a ape man. I really enjoy it. Or.. is it the part while I am naked and wet?

i would suggest unplugging all the things u dont use all the time like after ur done with the toaster unplug it... u leave the house unplug ur dvd depending on what u have and sometimes the electric company can over charge u because of something they didnt check or something went wrong.

Paint the roof white. White reflects the solar radiation instead of absorbing it. Here in Florida, I did that about 10 years ago on a dark flat top roof and it immediately lowered the house temperature 5 degrees.

Have a home energy audit done ( by a qualified, reputable company). They can assess if you need air sealing, insulation, duct sealing, and numerous other ways to save energy.

Although it isn't much, Sign up for EPP with the NV Energy, this will give you the same bill every month, for a years. I pay $180 a month regarless of how much energy I use. They do recalculate it every year so it can go up and down. How it works: After about 12 months of use (if your house/apt is more than 12 months old don't worry this is already done) they take your last years usage and divide it by 12 and this will be the amount you pay every month. Yes, I will admit it kinda sucks when you look at your bill in December/January and see that you only used $80-$100 worth of use but have to pay $180, but when June/July/August/Sept rolls around and I see $300-$350 of usage and only have to pay $180 I go YEAH! This plan might not be right for everybody, but at least it helps you manage your bills every month with a fixed bill. You can then use a little more power and not affect everything to make it cooler. And yes, i still keep my house at 77 durring the summer.

How about some shade trees over the house? They will take some time to grow, and I don't know how well trees grow where you are, those that will give a lot of shade anyway. I am also thinking that even if you don't use solar panels for electricity, they may still shade some of the roof. Anything that will prevent the sun from heating up your roof and side of the house will help, or something that will allow cool night air to cool the house naturally, if it is cool at night, rather than using the a/c at night if you don't need to.

I've read studies that say house plants will help regulate the indoor temperature by as much as 20% (cooler in summer & warmer in winter). Who knows if it really works, but it's inexpensive and worth a try. I'm in California, for us it can take more than 10 years to get a return on investment for putting in solar panels. Even with the government rebates, it doesn't make much sense. For you, I would think the ROI would be a lot better, but remember there is constant maintenance with that too and that cost can run up quickly.