When your home's HVAC unit fails on you and a technician won't be able to make it to your home until tomorrow, you need to figure out a way to stay cool until he or she can get there. After all, it's blazing hot outside and probably even hotter inside, and it's going to get even hotter without the air circulating around you. Luckily, with the following tricks, you can stay relatively comfortable and survive until the technician can get your air conditioner back up and running again.

Stick Your Sheets in the Freezer

Before you attempt to go to bed for the night, stick your sheets in the freezer so they can cool down. This should be done about two hours before you decide to try to get some shut eye. On a hot night, they won't stay cool for too long, but they should remain cool long enough for you to fall asleep.

Create Your Own Cooling Fan

Another trick is to create your own breeze inside the house. To do this, you will need a bowl – preferably metal since the metal will help to increase the cool air – full of ice cubes (or ice packs) and a large box fan. Once the ice begins to melt, the breeze from the fan will likely pick up some of the cool water, creating a cool mist.

Go as Low as You Can.

Heat rises, so you need to get low. Go to the lowest room in the house. If there is a basement, get there. If you don't want to move your mattress down there, then set up a hammock or a cot in the basement for the night so that you can beat the heat. If you don't have a basement, then put the mattress or make a pallet on the floor of the lowest story of the home.

Hang a Sheet in the Window.

If you would like to cool down an entire room, you can wet a sheet and hang it in an open window. If there isn't much of a breeze outside, you can place a box fan in the window behind the sheet. This will help push air through the sheet and allow cool air into the room due to the dampness of the sheet. Sure, it may not be pretty, but staying cool is the most important thing at the moment.