I figured out yesterday why our upstairs is like an oven in the afternoon: our house has no ridge vents. That keeps the hot air trapped in our attic instead of venting out. The gable vents on the house might meet code, but that doesn’t mean they’re any good.
It’s much worse in our office, over the attic. The ceiling in that room is closer to the roof than the rest of the upstairs, thus it’s closer to the heat. Luckily, ridge vents aren’t too difficult to have installed on existing roofs. We’ve got to find some recommendations for local roofers to do the work.
Out here in sunny Cali people use solar powered fan/vent dealio to rid their attics of hot air.