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Can We Save The World ?Low cost home coolingThe most effective method to stop your home getting too hot and reduce home cooling costs is to keep the heat from building up in the first place. The primary source of heat in your home is sunlight absorbed by your house through the roof, walls, and windows. Secondary sources are heat-generating appliances in the home and air leakage. Specific methods to prevent heat gain include insulating your home, reflecting heat (i.e., sunlight) away from your house, blocking the heat, removing built-up heat, and reducing or eliminating heat-generating sources in your home. Heat from the sun can be prevented from getting into your home by adequate levels of attic and wall insulation and by reflecting it outwards on glazed areas using light externally coloured blinds or curtains or other reflective materials. If your home often gets hot in the summer you may be able to block the sun by planting tall deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in winter) to shade sunny windows and roof areas. By adopting suggestions from this website you will: a) minimize secondary heat generation, b) reduce home energy use, and c) reduce home cooling costs. Additionally there are inexpensive ways to keep cool your home naturally that will minimise the need for air conditioners and reduce home cooling costs. Generally air temperatures drop quite rapidly after sunset then remain relatively stable until a hour or so after sunrise when they quickly rise again. Weather forecasts are now generally quite accurate, you could use these as a guide to plan your home cooling strategy. In most places night time temperatures are considerably less than day time temperatures. You can make your homes more comfortable during hot periods by taking advantage of this by letting cooler air into your home at night. 
Click for a larger image If you have windows or doors on more than one level or on more than one side of your home some combinations of open windows and doors will have a greater cooling effect than others. The best combination is the one that draws through the coolest air at the fastest rate, remember that warmer air is less dense and rises. Close these doors and windows before outside temperatures begin to rise. A good way to determine air flow is to unroll a few feet of paper from a toilet roll held in your hand and hold this in the airflow, the higher the airflow the more the paper will deviate from the vertical. Homes can be fitted with a whole house fan, ideally, these should be controlled by a thermostatic timer. A whole house fan is a large diameter - 600 to 100mm, that runs relatively slowly. If outside temperatures are significantly lower than inside temperatures the fan can switch on automatically cooling the house down to a preset lower temperature before switching off. In suitable weather conditions whole house fans are typically 20 times more energy efficient than air conditioning units. If you have an air conditioner use it as sparingly as possible, they consume a very large amount of energy. An infrared thermometer will quickly indicate the coolest side of your home and show you the temperature difference between inside and outside surfaces. The larger this temperature difference is the faster your home will cool. Be aware however that relative humidity should also be considered. Very damp air feels less comfortable than drier air, this is because the body is usually cooled by evaporation. If the cooler outside air is very damp letting it into your home may not have a cooling effect. 
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This is the UK site