Window fan does the trick for me on all but the most humid days. I
close up the house early in the morning and close/open pleated shades
throughout the day according to the sun's travel. It stays at least
10 degrees cooler than outside. Once the temperature drops outside so
that it's cooler out there, I open one upstairs window in an unused
bedroom, put in the window fan blowing out, and open the downstairs
windows. Shortly before bed, I close the downstairs windows and open
my upstairs bedroom windows. BTW, this is a cheap window fan, ~$20,
in a 1600+ sq ft house. I have a very hot attic but, like yours, a
lot of insulation. Lots of shade trees that keep the yard too dark to
garden, but none of them shade the house (great planning on the part
of whoever planted them, eh? Yes, the house is old enough that it's
been here longer than the trees.)

Jo Ann

Agreed, we have trees, but the upstairs still gets hot. After reading
this thread and seeing that several people recommended window fans, I
thought "what the hell?" when someone says "window fan" I think of
those cheezy little plastic things. Well I did a web search and found
that there are *real* window fans made; I've already ordered a big Air
King unit, we will see what happens. I suspect that whoever suggested
that the attic is getting hot is correct, although there's a ludicrous
amount of insulation up there. If the window fan does not do the
trick, I will look into some kind of powered attic ventilation. My
house is odd; the roof does not overhang the exterior walls at all,
although there are large vents at the top of the exterior walls so one
of those would be a good place to put a thermostatically controlled
fan.

nate