Our house usually stays cooler if the windows are kept shut during the hot day. Unless it is intolerable, we do not run the central air. We will have to keep the outside cats watered tomorrow.
Here north of Seattle, it was a pleasant 70 deg high today. We do not even have a air conditioner, very little need for it...may be 5 days above 90 during summer.
But last winter our electricity went out during a ice storm. So no heat or cooking for 36 straight hours. We could not even leave the house because roads were iced up.