Keeping Cool Gets Thriftier

As fuel costs, and eco-guilt, creep upward, Americans are leaving the thermostat high or kicking air conditioning altogether this summer, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some two-thirds of families are reducing air-conditioning use, a poll finds, as power plants raise prices as much 30% to keep up with natural-gas hikes. Meanwhile, people are getting creative to keep cool.

“People are trying to find ways to take control of their own energy destiny,” says one marketer for wind turbines, popping up in the backyards of the well-heeled. Others are trying tinted windows, or even hosing down the roof. “I don't know if it's all that good” for the roof, says one homeowner, "but when it's 110 degrees, I really could care less." (More heat stories.)