Whole house humm....

[H.Donald]

The last few days I have had this humm over most of my home.It is mainly in the basement and first floor.And it appears to be electric driven....
I have turned off every appliance....and it is still there....
This morning,I turned off the main power switch and after a few seconds it went away.....but,an hour or so later it was back.

Now,no haunted jokes,please....any ideas what this is....is this "dirty power?".

I called the big,giant power company and they will not come out since the noise is inside.Call an electrician was their suggestion.....which,I will in the morning.Now,I am just looking for a few ideas.

At times the humm sounds like a fan running somewhere or a distant lawn mower.I have did all the logical things,unplugged this and that....but it remains.It is loud enough that you don't have to strain to hear it....

[Azeke]

Have you added any electrical appliances to the circuit, i.e. sump pump, wireless devices (i.e. telephones in the area), or anything that may emit frequencies.

Ground disconnect somewhere perhaps?

Check your cable ground to ensure it's entact.

Just my quick thoughts,

Azeke

[Brandon B]

Do all members of your household hear it, or just you?

I ask, because I ahve had something similar to this for the past few years, and it is coming from me, not an external source. There are whole groups of people who suffer from it, and it is described in very much the same way you have described your situation.

BB

[bigburner]

The last few days I have had this humm over most of my home.It is mainly in the basement and first floor.And it appears to be electric driven....

Aliens possibly?

[soundhound]

An electrician is an excellent Idea if it is not an appliance generating the hum, or dirty line voltage coming in. You may have a coroded or loose connection to ground, and this can become unsafe. An elctrician can find it quickly if that is the case and that is money well spent, for piece of mind sake.

[Burke Strickland]

Maybe the house just doesn't know the words.... (has to hum along) :>)

The others have suggested two good avenues of investigation:

1) Have an electrician check it out to make sure nothing is wrong with the house wiring, and if that checks out OK

2) Have your ears/hearing checked by a specialist -- some people do experience a "ringing" or "hum" like that under certain conditions.

Good luck,

Burke

[Spearmint]

Not knowing what you have in your house or indeed what is standard devices in homes in the US, do you items like ducted heating or cooling? It sounds like it could be a fan stuck and radiating its noise through out the house.

The other items as Azeke pointed out being a sump pump or maybe an exhaust fan in a bathroom or ensuite etc.

[George Bellefontaine]

Like Herman, I had this experience with a hum emanating from the basement. I was able to trace it to my hotwater heating furnace. There is a little box on the front of the furnace that contains a transformer. When I touched the cover with my hand the hum disappeared. Just a screwdriver and the tightening of a screw solved the problem.

[RobP]

You may also want to start by shutting every breaker off in the main panel and see if you hear it then, if not, then go one by one turning each circut on to see if that circut is causing the noise, if it is electrical you will find it this way.

Another thing that you may want to check is your water pressure, about a year ago we had a water main that was leaking in our neighborhood, it was just leaking enough to cause a small pressure drop, everytime someone would turn on the water, or the ice maker would fill up you could hear the pipes making a weird vibrating noise.

[H.Donald]

This evening in preparation for the coming nor'easter,I started taking in some lawn furniture.One of the things that I took in was my Mosquito deleto....which had been out of propane for a bit.Later on...it seemed the humm was gone,or really low.
It's been in my head so...I really can't be sure.Which is an improvement....before it was,just there.
Anyway,I think it may have been the bug-zapper....I'll know for sure when things get real quiet.Happy I didn't let the 140 dollar an hour electricans find this for me.

[bigburner]

Herman, apologies for taking your hum so lightly.

As you will know from Club Halo / Parasound I've had some hum issues myself.

I've mostly fixed my problem by installing a new 20 amp mains cable directly from the switchboard.

[H.Donald]

No apology needed....these humms no matter where or how they are generated are a royal pain.I am still not sure my whole house is gone,but at least it made me forget about the 1095 issue.Whatever the final outcome....I do need to have some upgrading done.

[Brandon B]

Here's how my hum has gone:

A few years ago it started, only at night in bed. Pretty similar to a 60 Hz hum. At first I thought it was traffic noise from a semi-distant freeway. Wife wasn't sure if she heard what I heard. For quite sometime, I heard it at night only. Eventually I decided it was not traffic but something electrical. Worked on eliminating that, then ahd it done for me by a power outage. It was still there with no electricity for several miles. At this point I began looking online and considering radio frequency resonance type pehnomena. It was odd in that moving my head or a sudden noise would make it disappear, only to "fade back in" to audibility several seconds later.

Then one time I heard it during the daytime, but my wife did not hear it in the same location. At this point I began to think it was perhaps partly due to me or some different level of sensitivty (or a loose filling).

In travelling to Tokyo on business frequently, it would always go away. And it would usually take several days or a week after returning home for it to reoccur.

More recently, it began to occur more in the morning and evening before and after I went to bed. It also became louder in my right ear and has completely disappeared from my left ear. I have also experienced it for the first time on a trip to Japan (i.e. outside my home environment).

I have come to believe it is something akin to tinnitis, and has to do with similar factors, i.e. the small elements in the cochlea having some sort of natural "feedback" that occurs whenh they are not otherwise being stimulated (i.e. in a quiet room at night), and that it may also be related to levels of fatigue and stress, or maybe other environmental things.

I have also decided that high SPL sound like jet noise on a long flight or watching a movie at reference ( ) stimulate ehatever is doing it such that it goes away for a day or week. It also seems to go away sometimes for as long as a month on its own.

If your interested in other takes on it, just google "taos hum" and you'll find a ton of related links. Seems like this ocurs ina few percent of the population. Some have become so distressed yb it they have shoved screwdrivers and the like into their ears and injured themselves, or sleep outside to escape the symptoms.

I hope yours is indeed an externally triggered thing, not what I have. I am fairly capabale of ignoring things like this but it certainly can make sleeping difficult if other things are already causing me stress.

BB

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[bigburner]

That's interesting Brandon. Interesting seach too.

[H.Donald]

Brandon that certainly is an interesting phenomenon...
Mine is still there,I think....my children,wife,friends all hear mine....
Today,I will go breaker by breaker as had been suggested.

[H.Donald]

This gets stranger all the time....this morning I turned off the main power to the house,and the humm,buzz remained.Even after an hour...it kept humming.I can at least now almost pinpoint the location,if not the source.It seems to be generating in front of my house in the basement and first floor corner.
The only things over in that area are the sprinkler system and the gas meter.
The sprinklers are being shut down shortly for the season.
Right about now,I am ready to call a home inspector....or an exorcist.

[Brandon B]

Bees nest?

BB

[RobP]

Since you eliminated the possibilty of the electrical system causing your problem then you need to do the same with your water and gas. first shut off your main water valve too see if the hum stops, if it does then your sprinkler system may have an underground leak causing the pipe to vibrate, if not that do the same with the main gas valve out on the meter, the meter itself may be malfunctioning. You may have the gas company come out and check the meter if you are not familiar with your gas system.
Good luck!!

[H.Donald]

Good call.....yesterday,I went outside looking around the house,near the foundation was a puddle of water.I went inside and shut down the water supply and the hiss,humm immediately stopped.I turned the water back on and it started again....so mystery solved....thank goodness.The funny part was no noise was ever apparent outside...it all just channeled inside.I had been in that area several times and never heard a thing....
The sprinkler people will be out soon to repair....what a relief!!!...now,I can get back to the normal humm of my RMB 1095....

[RobP]

Congrats!!!! Its good to hear that you found your problem, I know things like that can drive a person nuts. :??

[ekkoville]

Great job troubleshooting Herman, but I was very interested to see if was a bees nest!

[H.Donald]

Now that would have been interesting...a bee's nest.Imagine how many would have been in the colony.

Now I am hoping that it's just minor damage to one sprinkler line....who knows how long this line has been leaking.I

[bigburner]

Great job troubleshooting Herman

I agree!