Closed each circuit breaker one by one to try to pinpoint. The sound is so annoying, hard to sleep at night. Don't know what to do.
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Humming vibrating sound in house
- Thread starter Stew
- Start date
OOOps, he will read it anyway. A humming house, never heard of such a thing.
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
Sometimes it can be a fluorescent bulb; even LED bulbs 'hum'; but at a higher frequency; when they're on dimmer switches. Sounds like Stew has bigger/other problems not related to light bulbs.
Misfit
Lawful neutral
Pete
Repete
Intriguing. You closed all the breakers one by one until they were all off? Still humming. Can you feel vibration in any hard mounted structures like a wall or countertop? Are you on well and septic or city? Propane heat?
Pete
Repete
In my universe fluorescent bulbs don't hum when the breaker is off.
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
They don't. I never said or implied that they did.....not intentionally anyway.
Pete
Repete
If it is not electrical that leaves mechanical, which I cannot think of what it would be unless he is on city water and has a vibe in a pipe, or something else like a swarm of bees in a concealed area.
Do you have a chimney? Fireplace? Close the damper, you might be getting a draw.
It could still be electrical, battery powered, like smoke detectors, clocks, etc.. Or the water pipes like you said, he may have a leak that he doesn't know about. Locating where the sound is loudest should direct them to the potential source.
again, yo where you live ;-) If you say over in calvert by LNG plant, i think thats it.... Was at chesapeake hills hitting balls and over at the plant all you could hear was BAM BAM BAM BAM driving some steel, and i'm going to guess they are also bore some more tunnels !!!!
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
Sure would be easier to find if it was a tapping sound in an engine. You can find those with a long screwdriver.
one breaker off at a time, off then back on;Can feel the vibration in the wall; city; no propane
Works on pipes too.
DEEKAYPEE8569
Well-Known Member
Yup.....I do remember some things Dad tried to teach me.
All walls or a specific wall?
Pete
Repete
I would go out and turn off the water at the street, open a valve and remove pressure and see if it stops.
Goldenhawk
Well-Known Member
That's not a bad suggestion. First few warm days of the year, might be a good idea to check the outside of the house for bees swarming an area of siding or gutter. A colony of bees will produce an audible hum in warmer weather.
This thread on another board is a virtual clone of this one, but has some different ideas.
http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/questions-home-owners-home-buyers-diy/28886-help-please-my-whole-house-humming-i-dont-know-what-do.html
In the end, he discovered it was a neighbor's fish tank.
Other potentially useful suggestions in that thread:
A a loose bit of flashing vibrating in the wind?
Water flowing thru a leaky toilet valve and causing a resonance? Try turning off the water service at the main house valve.
Natural gas flowing thru the pipe? Although that should stop with power off, as everything that uses gas will also be off.
Natural gas regulator or water system out at the curb? It may be humming or buzzing even when your own house systems are off, and the noise travelling up the pipe (the water pipe has already been mentioned here, but not the gas line).
Clock radio with a battery backup that is still making noise even when the main breaker power is shut off?
How about a faulty breaker that is allowing ground current thru, even when you switch off the mains? That could be powering something.