Can you give me tips for DIY cooling solutions for my house?

Consider a misting fan. Also, ceiling fans can lower a room temperature feeling as much as 8 degrees. Bonus, in the winter you can switch the direction and it will push warm air down.

Hi Richard, I feel you pain. We have a small house at the south coast of South Africa and the heat and humidity often make it unbearable. Have you tried putting the fans across from a window, so the wind from outside and the fan create a cross breeze? We also put our sheets in big ziplock bags in the freezer about 2 hours before going to bed. You can also dunk a towel in cold water and place it around your neck during the day. Hair scrunchies dipped in water around your wrists also work. You can also hang wet sheets in front of the windows. That does help a little. Sorry I don't know of any other kind of fan or system that would work

Hi Richard,

An attic fan may be the answer to some of your problem, heat rises of course so the house fans are just recirculating hot air, the attic fan would remove the hot air and draw in cooler air. Also an energy audit might help you too should be available from your local energy supplier. Insulation also does wonders. You also might want to check your windows, thermal panes are helpful with controlling the temperatures in your house.

For the inside of your home you might consider thermal drapes, they block the sun, keeping heat out and cool in. We got ours at Walmart and love them.

The attic fans are about $200+/-, based on the size of your house, they even come in solar models.

https://blessedinhomemaking.com/best-attic-fan-reviews/

Hi Richard here is a video that has some ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BLfYtE4Kow

Have you gotten an estimate for an air conditioning system? Sometimes they are not as expensive as you would think. Meanwhile a window air conditioner in a couple of your lived in rooms (living room, and bedroom) should help. At attic fan works very well also.

An attic fan is a good start. But if you already have ductwork for your heating system, then there's no way it should cost $15,000. We just had a new air conditioning system put in (ours was old and not big enough to handle our house with a new addition. We had the old equipment and all of the old ductwork removed and new everything installed. Our house is a 1,800 square foot rancher and it cost us $10,000. The equipment is American Standard Silver Series, 16 seer, 3 ton unit.