There is a high pitched whine in the house which comes and goes. It sounds "electrical". We have tried locating it by turning off and on circuits but to no avail. Any ideas?

Any idea what room it comes from? If so, what's in that room?

It appears in many rooms. Seems to start up especially at night. Sounds like one of those old tvs dying

So it's in multiple rooms, and cutting off the electricity does not yield any results. So you can safely assume that anything that plugs in for power is not the culprit.

It could be someone in the house owns a cellphone with one of those mosquito ring tones that emits a high pitched ringer that only some people are able to hear.

This may be way off the wall in your case but it does happen.

When a water heater has the gas connector that looks like an accordion
Bevels look to it, meaning that it is all wrinkled, it can cause a noise when the burner is burning.

This can also happen when the same type gas connector is used on a furnace. If the connector is smaller that it is suppose to be. It causes a very high pitch squeel and if your furnace happened to be in the attic this could be why you are hearing it throughout the house.

Please let me know what you find.

I'd like more information about the 'coming and going'...

Does it start and stop suddenly or gradually? Does it last a long time (tens of minutes each time) or a short time (less than one minute)? How often each day?

In Australia, some electrical authorities use control tones (below and above 1kHz) superimposed on the mains voltage to control switching of 'off-peak' facilities (things like water heaters, that have a cheaper rate because they use electricity during off-peak times). These tones have been known to become audible, either through other electronic equipment (particularly audio equipment) or through fluorescent ballast and the like.

Daniel

It often builds gradually - especially at night for some reason. We've had all the voltages on each circuit checked by an electrian. We heard the sound outside our house this morning and wonder if it could be an Nstart issue or rcn cable issue. It sounds like an old TV dying. We have also heard a buzzing sound from our gas furnace even when its off - could this be related? We have listened for the whining sound from our furnace but have not heard it with our ear pressed up against it.

Have you tried shutting off all power to house, maybe even turn off water main?

The buzzing sound that you hear from the furnace when it is off probably has nothing to do with the other noise you hear. The buzzing is a transformer hum and if it bothers you sometime you can move the transformer or put a wedge under it and stop that buzz.

Did you ever figure it out... because I'm going crazy here!

Found it... mine was a toy... it sounded like it was coming from the ceiling.. but no it was a toy!

I'm having the same problem...
Did you find out what it was?
Its driving me crazy...
My builder is doing his best to locate the problem...

I am hearing a high pitched noise only in the master bedroom of my house. It started about a month ago. I have shut off the main power breaker... the noise is still there. I have switched off the individual electronics and unplugged power strips in the room... nothing works. I took a vacuum hose and listened to each electronic device... each wall, and have done everything I know to find out where it's coming from, but to no avail. Is there a device I can buy to find the noise that is affordable. I don't want to pay an electrician to find "nothing"... just can't afford it.
Can anyone help?

I am hearing a high pitched noise only in the master bedroom of my house. It started about a month ago. I have shut off the main power breaker....the noise is still there. I have switched off the individual electronics and unplugged power strips in the room....nothing works. I took a vaccum hose and listened to each electronic device...each wall, and have done everything I know to find out where it's coming from, but to no avail. Is there a device I can buy to find the noise that is affordable. I don't want to pay an electrician to find "nothing"...just can't afford it.
Can anyone help?

If you shut off the main breaker and still hear the sound, why hire sn electrician. Turn off the water at the meter and see if it goes away.

Try with the water shut off?

I'm also going crazy! My husband can't hear the hum at all but it's all I hear in this house. We had a very elderly T.V. and I've been thinking it was the cause. My daughter noticed it too whenever she was at home, so it isn't only me! We replaced it two weeks ago and since then the ear-piercing squeal is worse. Perhaps the old T.V. masked the noise. It seems to be more pronounced in one room, but after awhile my ears ring wherever I am, so I have a hard time being able to determine if there's any improvement when we've experiments with unplugging things and even turning off all the power in the house. Out of the house, my ears eventually return to normal. This is terrible!!

Some electronics that have back up batteries can make noise(smoke detectors, alarm systems)
Faulty bearings can make a high frequency whine.
Solar Panel water heater on the roof?