The ancient romans cooled their villas by painting their chimneys black on the south side so the Sun heated the air in the chimney pulling air out of the villas. They then had clay pipes laid underground that drew air in from vents away from the villa hence the air would be cooled to the 55 fahrenheit of the ground by the time it was pulled into the villa.
Some of the simple things that you can do are:
Keep your blinds or curtains closed to block the sun during the hottest part of the day.
At night open your windows and put a fan at opposite ends of the house, one blowing in, one drawing out. This will move the air through and cool everything down.
Run appliances such as your oven or dryer at cooler parts of the day. Or try not to run them on really hot days.
If you can, hang your clothes outside. Try to grill more and run your oven less.
Keep your fridge and freezer full so that they run efficient.
Only run your dishwasher with a full load.
All these little things can add up to energy savings.
Sleep under the tree.
By using solar water heaters, solar cookers, solar cells, solar AC etc.
you can use is many more electric equipment.
