My house is well insulated, I keep the blinds on sun-facing windows closed during the day; I have 12' ceiling in my living room and I'm smart enough to not run the dishwasher or clothes dryer during the day. The refrigerator I can't do anything about. However, I'm not crazy enough to think I can live without A/C in a Minnesota summer.
I live on a dirt road. The ambient temperature above the surface is noticeably less than on asphalt: the instant you turn off a main road onto the gravel, you can feel the temperature drop.
I also neglected to add that I have shade trees :-)
