One thing my wife and I have done to our house, which is a regular "ranch style" 1970s home - here in Phoenix, Arizona - is to add on our back porch "house curt

One thing my wife and I have done to our house, which is a regular "ranch style" 1970s home - here in Phoenix, Arizona - is to add on our back porch "house curtains". Our porch faces toward the west. We have a huge mesquite tree back there that shades the house during latter part of the day (plus our patio is covered), but in the later afternoon, sun will shine in as the sun sets, and heat the house up. So we strung aircraft cable with small turnbuckles and hung up colorful polyester fabric shower curtains (this was a recent change, originally we had used canvas dropcloths, which worked well too - but were difficult to keep clean). We can slide the curtains "closed" to block out the sun in the evening. Between that, plus having double-glazed windows installed, extra insulation in the attic, roof ventilators, and the fact that our house is of concrete block construction (not stick frame) - while we still have to use AC, we find that we can keep it set higher most of the time, and during the early summer/spring and late summer/fall times - not at all (opening the windows at night and using fans to bring in cooler air - then closing things up in the morning before it gets too hot). It's noticeably reduced our bills, considering how old our house is (and we have two heat pump AC units on the roof - that has it's own interesting story, but not relevant here).