Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 71 total)
  • What's the odd 'throbbing' sound in my house?
  • Gary_M
    Free Member

    So I’m home alone this week so the place is pretty quiet. Now I’ve noticed this sound before but there’s always been something else to distract me.

    Sound like a pump running so went round turning various things off, fridge etc, noise still there so turned off the main power supply to the house so nothing else running and no laptops on. It’s still bloody there.

    So aside from some alien activity in middle earth what is it? Only thing I can think of the the main power supply coming into the meter. It’s driving me nuts.

    senorj
    Full Member

    Has a neighbor installed an air conditioning unit?

    Drac
    Full Member

    Look in your wife’s secret draw.

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    br
    Free Member

    Look in your wife’s secret draw.

    Beat me to it.

    aka_Gilo
    Free Member

    Bristol has / had a “hum” , referenced here: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/have-you-heard-the-hum-mystery-of-earths-low-droning-noise-could-now-be-solved-10182111.html

    I’ve certainly heard it, it’s kept me awake at night in the past.

    prettygreenparrot
    Full Member

    Secret dub club in the cellar?

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Has a neighbor installed an air conditioning unit?

    Doubt it as I live in the west of Scotland.

    Modern house, no cellar. Not one I’m aware of anyway

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Is your next door neighbour a complete throbber?

    colp
    Full Member

    Have a look for a Vauxhall Corsa with LED lights, a sound system that fills the boot, and a 17 year old driver, under the floorboards.
    I’ve lost count of the number of times it’s happened to me.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    It’s all in your head and it’s caused by WiFi signals. I sell some bracelets with holograms that absorb the nasty 1 bits leaving the lovely calm 0 bits through. £10, PayPal Gift….

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Lots of pumps in houses – fridge, central heating, ventilation unit etc.

    colp
    Full Member

    Kryton isn’t in the kitchen using your microwave to heat up some pudding is he?

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Lots of pumps in houses – fridge, central heating, ventilation unit etc.

    All of which, and the wifi, don’t work when the main power supply to the house is switched off.

    Got some music on now so it’s gone

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Are you sure it’s in the house? Local windfarm or agricultural machinery?

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    In all seriousness, I had this as well.
    Turned out to be the noisy hard drive in the SKY+ box spinning up and down as it constantly records the last half hour of TV to allow the live pause function to work.

    Turn off ALL the power at the consumer unit and see if it stops.

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Are you sure it’s in the house? Local windfarm or agricultural machinery?

    No, but I can here it clearer in the utility room which backs onto the meter cupboard.

    Wind farm is 10 miles away.

    What I need is a power cut in the local area.

    Turn off ALL the power at the consumer unit and see if it stops.

    Already done.

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    No, but I can here it clearer in the utility room which backs onto the meter cupboard.

    Have you stuck your head IN the meter cupboard?

    jimmy
    Full Member

    I have the same (previous thread somewhere). Still there, drives me slightly mad sometimes. Council have a noise team who have offered to investigate but it wasn’t happening when they came round. Nothing electrical as have switched everything off. There’s a mains water pump 50m away from the house but “working as expected” from their report. Whether “working as expected” means an acceptable level of noise, I don’t know. Its a real shame – we moved here because its so quiet except the “ssshhhhhhhhhh” of the river. The hum kinda sh’ts on that peace and quiet when its going about 50% of the time.

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Yes but I’d need to pull the freezer out to get to the meter but I’m slightly incapacitated at the moment.

    retro83
    Free Member

    Have you got a NAS? One of the drives in mine makes a really deep periodic wooom-wooom-wooom noise that nobody else seems to hear.

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    No but all the power has been turned off at the consumer box.

    ads678
    Full Member

    If your powers turned off your freezer will be off. stick your head in the meter cupboard and see if the noise is louder.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Go outside and have a sniff.

    Neighbours got “green fingers”?

    jimmy
    Full Member

    are you near farmland? From Google maps I think there’s a farm – or something – about 100m away from our door but its over the fence, through the river, up a steep bank and beyond which I haven’t got round to looking in to. If its not the water pump nearby, I’m guessing they may have a generator.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Can anyone else hear it? Had your blood pressure checked lately?

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Yes, on Wednesday.

    If your powers turned off your freezer will be off.

    Really? I didn’t know that

    The-Beard
    Full Member

    We had this in our house, noticed it not long after moving in, eventually identified the source as being the electricity meter in the hall. Not noticed it much recently, I’ve either got used to it or the dog’s snoring is drowning it out!

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Did it sound like a loud PC fan running The Beard?

    bigjim
    Full Member

    Strangely since jimmy’s last thread on this topic we also now have The Hum in the flat. Most noticeable late at night on still nights when all is quiet, annoyingly loud when I go to bed. Some nights is does stop, guessing it is a generator somewhere.

    ThePinkster
    Full Member

    I’ve had this before now and it’s turned out to be the local farmers doing farmy stuff in their fields around by us.

    Is it continual, only noticeable at certain times of day or fades in & out quite quickly?

    Could it be high altitude transatlantic aircraft flying over? I believe they head up your way before turning Statesward.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    A neighbour said he had similar and turned out to be his old style (on a new build) gas meter which was replaced and now OK.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Hmm, an old meter can make a noise.

    doris5000
    Full Member

    i’ve had low frequency tinnitus in the past, so bad i was getting out of bed to see why there was a lorry idling outside 😯

    found it really really frustrating for a while – do you work in noisy environments (or listen to headphones really loud?)

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    It’s continual, gas meter is outside and newish. I’ll have a listen at that but unlikely.

    Sound never changes, constant thrum but in a cycle if you know what I mean.

    As its constant I’m ruling out planes, trains & automobiles.

    Phil_H
    Full Member
    IA
    Full Member

    As above, give the gas meter a listen, mine was surprisingly loud.

    Smudger666
    Full Member

    are you on mains water? try turning the mains power off again and then turn off the mains water at the external stop cock

    we had a leak at the stopcock that was vibrating the incoming mains cold water pipe and created a noise (that’s how we identified the problem as, thankfully, the mains water was undercutting the car park and not the building foundations.)

    It took a couple of weeks to identify/rectify and the damage tot eh car park was significant.

    beardo74
    Free Member

    I had this in my house. Could only ever hear the humming late at night when it was quiet, or so I thought.

    Tracked it down to the “off peak” electricity meter thingumy. It comes on at 11pm and off at 7am (ish), which was why I could not hear it during the day.

    beardo74
    Free Member

    Oh, and turning off the power makes no difference – I think the consumer unit is after the meter……(not an electrical expert, so preparing to be flamed…)

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