A bud from down south laid it out for me. Keep the windows on the lower floors open on the north/shaded sides only, open all doorways to let heat rise naturally, then have an attic fan suck that hot air out the sunny side of the house, blowing it away.
Attic fans are way cheaper’n ACs if you can get away with it. (Or can tolerate heat.)
Attics here are not “conditioned” spaces. Meaning that there is no insulation between the roof deck and the attic.
And there is no active heating or cooling in the attic.
The insulation is on the floor of the attic. Or on top of the living space ceiling.
Attics here are not used for anything other than to hold the HVAC and usually some storage for stuff you never want to see again.
All the AC stuff is usually in the attic. Both the HVAC unit and all the ducting. Houses are build on a slab so there is no place for under floor ducts.
Man what a stupid arrangement. But that’s how most of the homes built here have been done.
Only the most recent higher dollar homes are starting to use modern energy efficient insulation or construction methods.
Attics are vented around the edges below the hips with roof vents near the apex. So there is some air circulation.
But when it’s 110 outside and there is that huge flat asphalt shingle roof soaking up the photons, man does it cook in there.
Exhaust fans for the attic give rise to other problems. Depending of how the incursions into the ceiling are done. A fan can pull air from the living space.
In some states they are not allowed by code. You can run into problems with gas appliances that may pull air from the attic space - even if that is not to code - but it happens.
Pusher fans (like traditional attic fans) need some way to vent the hot air out. Roof design here doesn’t have enough exit venting. So the pressurized attic air intrudes into the living space through the poorly sealed ceiling deck.
Garage doors that face north here get the afternoon sun. It’s hotter in a closed garage than outside by 6pm here.
I am getting a 2 ton mini-split put in the garage too. And some new insulated garage doors.
My days of mucking about in a 100 degree garage are just not fun anymore.
This part of Texas has always been years behind most of the rest of the country as far as keeping up with modern building techniques.
All the Best,
Jeff
Out here where the lows are in the 90s for months, Texas reverts to a Freon based economy.
In the dry West Texas, swamp coolers work well and are very cost effective. But it has been getting more humid and there are too many days when all they do is add humidity to the air and it’s more miserable.
All the Best,
Jeff
The parking lot temp a few summers ago.
You can’t fry an egg, but you can darn well cook one.
Or kill a steak beyond well-done on the asphalt.
No fans are going to help with this. I’ve seen tires sink into poorly made roads.
All the Best,
Jeff
Sounds rough down there. Last summer we broke a record for most days above 90. I think it was 25. Now I don’t feel so bad.
Yeap and some of them ended up in the ocean because people were getting upset at the blight they were causing. A lot of the drivers are menaces to themselves and others because they don’t think traffic laws or common sense applies to them. I’ve almost been run over a few times on the sidewalk because of the idiots on them.
All this talk of heat and humidity makes me happy that I had to put on a sweatshirt and a jacket for my walk this afternoon 
75°F/24°C or so here in Seattle. The city parks are crowded.
A little hotter across the east side of the state and hotter in Portland and down the Willamette Valley.
Fire danger listed as high in a few areas. Like Bushmaster said: Looks like a bad year coming for fires in the Pacific Northwest.
Over here it keeps fluctuating between wonderfully fresh 21-31C almost everyday according to forecast, with some nice crisp mornings that make me doubt that low estimate. Just got out of an early drought spell that was going on since mid-March, so finally we can breathe a little easier without hugging a water bottle all day.
All this jacket/sweatshirt talk of you lot is making me sweat already 
Over here it’s all about t-shirts and shorts unless I’m going to a more formal appointment like a visit to the dental clinic.
It's about perfect here now but.....I can't get the garden in fast enough....and I'm buying another air filterer thing.
31F here. Was camping at 70 degrees like a couple weeks ago.
It's 21 C° now so nice in shade now. Way more people out and about now. Seems most folks are in and/or near parks. Saw a downed tree on the local trails. Strange that only one tree fell but the others are still standing?
Was this at Mundy park?
73 degrees F and you are starting to sweat? That’s what you get when you are acclimated to arctic weather in the frozen north. I used to live in the Midwest so well know the agony of waiting for Spring to really arrive. March was the cruelest month in WI, MI, and IL. We can always tell the new transplants from the north. They are the people using our HOA pool in March. The rest of us wait until it gets in the 90s.
Spring arrives in late February or early March here. We have already had an unusual spell of weather when it reached into the mid-90s but not accompanied by the high humidity of the coastal regions. Fortunately it dropped back into high temperatures in the 70s and low 80s for about the past two weeks. I’m not used to having to un-mothball the evaporative cooler that serves as my primary AC unit in early March. It’s the perfect time of year for cycling and other outdoor activities - not too hot and not too cool.
Hey yeah Mundy park. 
How you know? Been there before? That park is great. Rare plants and wildlife inside. Plus the cougars and bears prowling around here and there.
Kinda pic heavy post. Lots of yellow/green kinda plants. They seem to be everywhere. Plus some ferns too.
Good place to go to unwind and just be with nature. But watch out for Cougars and Black Bears!
Thinking about going tru at night now! Hmmm maybe some flashlight beam shots!
I was out there last weekend and walked past that very tree and wondered why a single tree fell in the forest
Was outside in just a t-shirt on Sat. high 60’s, started snowing yesterday and was 25F when I got up this morning.
Wow I thought I was the only BLF member in this part of town.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for the person with the cool flashlight when I’m on the trails again.