When you have friends in for summer cookouts and outdoor fun, remember to close up your house to keep it as cool as possible without using energy to run your AC. Turn off all lights during the day. Keep curtains, blinds, and shutters closed so the house doesn’t retain heat from sun on your windows. Try to minimize the number of trips in and out of the house to keep the cool air in. Also, when spending your day outdoors, set your thermostat a bit higher. When you walk into a 75 degree home, from an 85 degree outside temperature, the house feels pleasantly cool.