Kym,

I was specifically thinking of Canada when I wrote the post. Texas is entirely a different ball game.

PF blogs tend to focus on houses because that’s where their writer’s live. I haven’t lived in an apartment for over five years now. Also tips 2, 3, 4 could be used in an apartment (because I did use them when living in one).

In your example you could pay the bill and accept it, move, or get rid of the cat. There’s always a choice with these things, even if we would never use that choice (ie: get rid of the cat).

Tim

1. Live in Texas (half the air-conditioning is for dehumidification purposes, and the nights don’t get quite so cool);
2. Rent a 2nd-floor apartment built in the early ’80s that still has its original windows (and is owned by a corporation rather than an individual, so there’s no likelihood of having them replaced by anything more efficient);
3. Have an indoor-only cat, so I can’t go leaving windows open, even if we didn’t have disease-bearing mosquitoes.

In fact, it bothers me quite often that personal finance blogs tend to be geared so much toward homeowners who live in actual houses with yards, when renting an apartment or condo is so much more frugal.

Anyway, I’m in SE Washington state, high desert out here, gets plenty hot. So far this year I’ve only used the A/C twice. I definitely follow your first three ideas, and then go a step further for number four.

Install a whole house fan.

Works so much better than just leaving the windows open, or even having a fan in one window. Its a 3′ diameter, very large bladed fan mounted in the ceiling in the bedroom hallway (approximate center of the house). Turn it on and the airflow is tremendous, cools down every single room (but be sure to open enough windows first). Only on the very hottest of nights will I let it run through the night, otherwise for an hour or two before bed, and another hour in the morning. If it gets down to 60F outside, I’ll have the house down to 65F. If I leave it running all night, it’ll bring the house down to the same as outside.

And then close up the house in the morning.

I love coming home when its 90F outside, and the house is still at 70F, with no A/C usage.

Oh, and the two uses so far? Once was a day when it only cooled down to 75F overnight, the other was a day when it was very humid and used the A/C for a bit to dry the air inside.

Also, if you only have one window open at night, turn the fan around so that it’s blowing the hot air out and drawing the cooler air in. (If you have more than one open, blowing into the room works just as well because you get proper air exchange).