Having a window installed for a window unit or simply having the unit exit through the wall would be your best bet. Do you have a corner room with 2 outside walls? It would help to have some plantings to shade your outside walls. Maybe a vine of some type that would grow up and shade the walls. I would think that you could have the a foam type insulation injected into the outside wall without a huge expense. Also more insulation in the attic would help and a whole attic fan. Installing any of the insulation or attic fan is going to help with the overall expense of heating/cooling your home. Your local energy company probably has a program to do a free home analysis and will offer the most cost effective solution for your home. Check with them and see. Ann in TN

We always close the basement vents in the summer open the middle floor half way and open the top floor vents wide open. A fan in the attic that is automatic and comes on when the attic reaches 80 degrees works well also. Good luck.

There is a new air conditioning unit out - called a "mini-split" I believe. They are very small (about 1.5 feet long and only about 6 inches high). A friend had one installed in his attic office recently and it is awesome. It is installed on the wall, and has a very small vent tube that runs outside. Not sure of the exact price, but he said it was under $1,200. We are considering two of them for our cottage in Michigan.....

What type of lights bulbs are you using? Some generate more heat than others.

They make a portable air conditioning unit that sits on the floor. I'm not sure of a model name, but I think I saw one recently at Lowe's or Home Depot.

I don't have an upstairs room, but my room is on the southside of the house. I move my little sewing table and machine to the family room in the hottest part of the summer.

My room is a south-east facing, second story. The non window side gets the afternoon sun. The insulation in walls and ceiling is pretty good, use florescent lighting, have a big AC unit dedicated for the upstairs, but it's still hot. I feel your pain. I do have a ceiling fan to help. In the bedroom on the opposite side of the house, we use a small window unit to supplement the big A.C. I like the window. I keep the curtains closed most of the time to avoid fabric fade and avoid the green house effect, but like to look outside too. I'll probably make new insulated curtains this summer.

In the solarium, we put in a wonderful heat/A.C. unit, it works great, so quiet it's hard to tell when it's on, is energy efficient. The compressor sits on the ground with a wire and small hose connection to the (computer tower sized) in-wall unit. It is a hard worker, but an expensive investment. I have a neat little portable A.C. which I use in a mobile office trailer. The exhaust vent is on a springy 4" hose (like a dryer vent) which I mounted into a piece of scrap plywood, and use little bungee cords to attach it to the roof vent. It is a little bulky, but is a good solution.

Talk to the experts at your local hardware store, and your tax advisor, about government incentives to insulate. In addition to cooling your home, the utilities go down, and you just might be entitled to a tax deduction for the home improvement.

I put this stuff on the windows of our bay window and it was remarkable the difference. I think it said not to use it on windows that have double panes though. Apparently it builds up too much heat between the two panes of glass. It was easy to apply and was still in good condition when we put in replacement windows. Those are double paned so can't put the tint on them.

Another thing you may want to think about is tinting your windows. We had to do that in our S. facing room that I sew in. It did not make my room dark and I also run a ceiling fan.

U can get one installed into a wall near an outlet. Consider this. I know it gets hot upstairs.

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You can create a Bernoulli Effect by opening a few windows in your sewing room and a few at the other end of the house - preferable directly opposite the sewing room. The airflow will be cool enough that you will not need conditioners. It gets pretty hot in Oz too, and that's the method we use.