Great article form the Hometown Annapolis newspaper detailing the steps you can take to keep a room cool:

1. Turn on the ceiling fan
2. Go from Auto to On for your AC fan only
3. Apply window film to windows

I agree with all the suggestions; however, I would rank the window film slightly higher to #2.  The reasoning is that the money spent on electricity can never be re-couped.  Whereas the money spent on window film can be earned back within 2-3 years by reduced electrical consumption.

There is only one point in the article I strongly object to:

It doesn’t have metal and hurls the heat out in summer and helps keep it in the house in winter. It’s called the Prestige Series and comes in at $8 to $12 a square foot of glass, depending upon the difficulty of application. So figure about 100 bucks a window and don’t forget the skylight.

$8 to $12 a sqauare foot is an extremely high price to pay for window film.  I wish the author of the piece did some more research to give a range of possible window film options.  This range should also include installing quality film in a DIY project.  Quality DIY window tint that is custom-cut to the sizes a homeowner needs range from $2.15 to $2.65 a square foot.  The application process for window film is really not very complex.  SnapTint.com provides an excellent window tint installation video that quickly explains the process.

At these DIY prices compared to the $8 to $12 for a professional, a homeowner can afford to install every window themselves 3-5 times over!