We moved into a new build 18 months ago. Recently – past few months – there has been a background humming noise, like an engine underground 24×7. It is slowly driving me mad.

The estate is still being built in places so my best guess is a generator running, but I can’t hear anything outside and I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be allowed. I’ve written to the builders to check.

Assuming its not that, what are the options for tracing the noise? Do the council do such a thing under environmental monitoring or would it be a private matter?

Have you left any, er, toys battery powered items or suchlike switched on?

Well, err, *I* haven’t…

Ground source heat pump in a nearby property?

doubt there’s any such technology in a Miller development…

Why would a generator be running on a site at night? Is your house detached? It’s not next door drilling a hole to the earths core by any chance?

Perhaps the nice old man next door has collapsed face down onto his Bontempi?
One last, eternal chord.

Mrs S has just reminded me of the fish tank pump/skirting board incident of ’09.
Very annoying till traced.

Oh Oh….look for an eye patch….if the bloke next door has one…he’s up to no good.

When you hear it switch your electric off at the consumer unit.

If its something in your house and electrical it’ll stop.

To find out if its structurally bourne noise put a hefty screwdriver or similar on rigid surfaces like windowsills and the handle over your ear’ole

You could also try that on the pavement outside. Aswell as any manhole and valve covers.

Edit: apologies my post appears to have been too helpful in comparison

Have you checked for blood running down the walls?

Could it be tinnitus? I get a sound like a car idling on the driveway when it’s quiet at night….there is no actual noise, it’s just tinnitus. I used to get up and check there was nothing outside, but now I know there is nothing out there, just the noises in my head.

Can you only hear it in the house? There are a lot of possibilities, I too tend to pick up on persistent noises especially at night. At my parents house at night I can be kept awake by a persistent hum, I think it is distant traffic noise causing the double glazing to resonate, it sounds a bit like a distant road roller. I’ve also been driven mad by a transformer that powers their kitchen lights, it buzzes away, they can’t hear it but it drives me mad.

You might well be hearing a generator, outside there might be too much other noise to hear it clearly, but inside only the low frequencies make it into your house so it seems much clearer. Aren’t you in a river valley? Falling water can generate deep frequencies too.

I’d say try reporting it to the council anyway, if they come they will have good equipment to see if there is a noise and if it is at a level they are required to investigate. One thing you could do is record it yourself, you could then do things like play it back at a volume others can hear (I told you I wasn’t mad etc) and use a frequency analyser to establish what frequency it is at, might identify if it is related to a 50Hz power source. I imagine you could hire a noise consultant too but that would start getting expensive.

If you are hearing it at night in bed, is the noise present everywhere in the room or just specific locations? The noise I mention above is only present in the corners of the room, resonance an ting.

Keep us updated #noisegeek

Alternatively run around naked outside asking people “can you hear it? the noise” and if they can “make it stop”

Second lodious, tinnitus had me doing that too!

Someone I used to work with had a similar issue, they were plagued with an electrical hum that they couldn’t get to the bottom of.

It was resolved when the police took a battering ram to the house next door and carted out the marijuana growing operation.

OP, Does your other half hear the humming noise?

I’m pretty sensitive to noises at night too, as a kid I could hear a distant humming noise. No one believed me until my Dads mate who was environmental health came round with some specialised equipment to listen. Turned out it was a paper mill nearly a mile away, down in a valley behind us had recently installed some new equipment and it was that I could hear.

Also in the first house we bought I could hear a humming noise every night and was convinced it was a standby genny or similar running nearby. After a lot of listening to floors/walls etc it turned out to be the Sky box in the living room!

Sound of massive can ‘o worms being opened…

What you are hearing is “The Hum”. Goggle it and read all about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

Ineteresting…
We’ve lived in the same house for nearly 5 years, in the evenings I can hear a hum-like noise. sounds like an fidge compressor outside somewhere.
Oddly we moved there from less than 100 yards away and never heard it. It bugs me a little, but its not disruptive.
We’re moving in 6 weeks so hopefully that’ll be the end of it.
Odd though.

We found that the transformer on the bathroom shaver socket was giving off a slight hum. Could be that, if you have one.

Switch off power and listen. If it goes then switch on each circuit until you hear it again. Then at least you will know whereabouts it is.

Fit one of these and see if the noise goes away.

Is your house terraced/attached or detached?

If attached it could be structure borne noise from the other property. E.g. fridge/fan. If you put your ear to the wall you might be able to hear it through the structure

Where in your house can you hear it, which rooms? And where in the room are you when hear it?

How does it compare in level to other background noises in the house? Can it only be heard when everything else is silent? Or is it audible above other noises.

By the way, my current job title is a “Noise Consultant”, might be able to give you some insight

We have a factory about half a mile away that seems to start early, but only on some days. Puzzled me for a while that did.

I hear this all the time late at night. My wife can’t hear anything and thinks I’m imagining it. I googled it once and found it’s a fairly well-known phenomenon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

Oops, just noticed globalti beat me to it.

Go to your consumer unit just before bed and switch off all house power then listen. I found that I could hear the hum from the Leccy Toothbrush charger at night. Could just be some neighbours bathroom extract fan running if they have one of the remote ones.. good luck ! I used to work night shift in a hotel and there was a high number of people who would complain about a humming noise keeping them awake and expect me to find it an switch it off. The hotel was 1/4 mile end to end and had 230 bedrooms it was never going to happen but some of them used to get quite irate.

I agree with those recommending turning all power off at the consumer unit as a start.

muzzle – Member
I hear this all the time late at night. My wife can’t hear anything and thinks I’m imagining it. I googled it once and found it’s a fairly well-known phenomenon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

Do you still hear it with earplugs in? If so it might be tinnitus. If not it could be one of a number of other things. I’d start with turning your power off as others have suggested

I haven’t tried anything, as it doesn’t really bother me. It’s so low frequency it’s like I can ‘feel’ it as well as hear it, so I’m fairly sure it’s external.

Sorry to say it but this is all horribly familiar. My mum aged 85 lives in rural Wiltshire and was being driven mad by The Hum. She had every utility out to investigate as well as several different local government and village specialists, all with the same conclusion: there is no hum. I even drove down and spent a weekend with her, telling her to wake me as soon as she heard it. Sure enough she woke me early in the morning all excited and I went into her room, sat for ages and listened…. complete silence. She has learned to live with it now.

Radon fan?

i had this too – was low-frequency tinnitus for me, and came on especially after i’d been listening to closed-back headphones too loud.

but it had me stood at the window wondering where that idling lorry was a few times before i figured it out though!

We found that the transformer on the bathroom shaver socket was giving off a slight hum. Could be that, if you have one.

^^ me too.

Also try…

* Central heating / hot water circulation pump?
* Fridge compressor / fan
* Electricity substation nearby (they’re disguised as garages on new developments)

Wouldn’t tinnitus show up in other environments i.e. away from home ?

Radon fan?

No. You?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCHxNBefqH0[/video]

(Wondered the same thing myself, actually)

There used to be a hum at night around Chippenham, never bothered me, but with all of the media attention a while back I was intrigued by it.
Pretty much determined it was aircraft at RAF Lyneham with their engines running.
Can’t say I really notice it these days, and Lyneham has been closed for a while…

I had this for weeks. It turned out to be the power supply in this…

I had something similar, turned out the noise was emanating from a trip switch in the fuse box!

As above, switch your electricity off and maybe get your immediate neighbours to do the same.

allthepies – Member
dmorts said »

Do you still hear it with earplugs in? If so it might be tinnitus. If not it could be one of a number of other things. I’d start with turning your power off as others have suggested

Wouldn’t tinnitus show up in other environments i.e. away from home ?[/quote]

Yes it would and therefore you could rule it out or not. However away from home, e.g. staying in a hotel, you’d have to make sure the background noise is as low as it is at your home. Otherwise, the tinnitus could be masked. (Or an option is to use earplugs in the new location too)

My old man has something similar not so long ago. Said he heard some mumbling/humming in the night.

Turned out, the radio in the kitchen instead of being turned off, the volume was just put on zero. Except on zero, it wasn’t 100% silent. At night, when everything else is quieter you could just hear the radio mumbling. This was travelling through the kitchen work top to his bedroom above the kitchen.

Best of all, I realised this when I came home drunk and thought I was going crazy hearing mumbling in the kitchen.