Hello, I hope you folks can help me.

Recently, we have been hearing a loud, low frequency "hum" throughout our house. I have turned the main power off to determine whether it's electrical. It's not. The noise does sound like a "fog horn" going off several blasts at a time and the noise level is constant in every level/room.

I think this is a water pipe humming problem like other people have described. However, I have turned the water main off and the problem does not go away! A quick check of indoor faucets and toilets didn't really turn up the culprit.

I recently got a lawn sprinkler installed. I can't really check its pipes. Could this be the source of the problem too?

Before I call a plumber, is there anything else I should try? Attic/roof inspection? Gas line? Structure?

Any suggestion would be appreciated. This noise is very annoying.

Cheers.

Hi,
I would suggest checking in your attic as this sound could be caused by animals/birds possibly or by something in the attic vibrating against wooden beams for example a TV aerial. Also check for anything battery operated that could be causing it.

If the noise started after you had your sprinklers installed I would suggest a professional checks they are not faulty and that the pipes are not blocked.

If you still don't have a culprit look for a reputable electrician to check the wiring in the house, because although you disconnected the power supply a small amount of power could still be running. This happens when your electric company tries to ensure that if you have a power cut it doesn't short the circuits or the meter.

Good luck finding the problem.

Tracy

The problem is caused by the ballcock trying to fill while water is seeping out of the tank. The sound you hear is the washer vibrating against the seat of the ballcock. First check there linkage between the flapper and the flush lever. It should have 1/4" of play when your tank is filled. Next feel the flat side of your flapper. Does it have wavey edges? Do your hands come away black? Replace it if it does. And last check the seat itself. Any nicks or rough spots? If so click on back. There are replacement seats that glue right over the old one and are easy to replace. One of the above should take care of your howling. This happened in a new house some years ago. Only at night and in the early morning. They thought the house was haunted and were about to move out. I caught it in the powder room toilet. It would vibrate and the pipes in the wall would pick it up and carry it all over the house. Hope this helps Tom

I am having a similar experience in my home. I also tuned of all the breakers and the water, but the noise continues (every level and every room including the basement). Fog horn is a good way to describe it, but mine is a faint low level hum. It is mostly intermittent, but sometimes continues for several seconds at a time. It is difficult to hear if there are any other noises. I mostly hear it at night, but if it's quiet I can hear it 24/7. I searched for the source everywhere in my home with no luck. I have now started searching the neighborhood. I'm not sure what I'm looking for, maybe a transformer going bad or something. No one else in my home can hear the noise, and they are starting to give me funny looks. Have you had any luck finding the source of your hum? I would love to figure this one out. It's keeping me up at night.

It's me again. It seems we are not the only ones in the world with this problem. I googled "humming noise" and came across some interesting reading (that's how I came across your posting). Check out the two links below. I am trying to reach out to the individuals associated with these articles. I will let you if I come up with something.


Click on, or cut and past these links in your address bar.

Society for Scientific Exploration | Journal of Scientific Exploration | The Hum: An Anomalous Sound Heard Around the World

Mystery humming sound captured - Technology - smh.com.au

Taos Hum Page

http://amasci.com/hum/tinn2.txt

Has anyone come up with any other possible fixes for this problem? I am having the same issue. I can hear a fairly quiet sound similar to a foghorn that comes and goes, sometimes lasting up to 30-60 seconds at a time. It is especailly noticeable at night. Even though it is not very loud, I can almost feel the low level rumble of the noise. It is approximately the same volume in all rooms.

As with others on this list, no one else in my house can hear the noise, so they think I'm nuts.

Would some sort of sound meter be able to help locate the source of the sound... or even to prove that the sound exists?

Thanks

This probably isn't your answer, but I had a similar experience the other night with a whistling sound coming from my two-month old's room. Turns out my 18 month old had shut the vent in his room and it was the noise of the furnace fan blowing against the closed vent.

Its Aliens!! No seriously I don't know what its is but I hear the same noise, it's the ice maker on my refrigerator though.

Hey delevin1, no answers to give you, but here's what has happened since my last posting. The noise is still present in my home, and still no one else can here it but me. Even stranger, I have heard the noise in two other places. One in a friends home about five miles from where I live, and two in a friends home about ten miles from where I live. I believe it could be coming from navigational aids or other equipment from the nearby Air Reserve base. There are lots of large aircraft operating there. I use to live in New Smyrna Beach, Florida (about one hour north of the Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa Beach, Florida). When they would launch a Shuttle it would take several minutes for the rumble of the engines to come rolling through New Smyrna. My point being these types of low frequency intense happenings could very easily affect a large geographic area. Still the most reasonable explanation is the Taos Hum (see the links to the sites in my earlier response). This humming noise of unknown origin is said to be audible to just two to ten percent of the population. There is a lot of speculation on what might be causing this humming noise, but not a lot of interest in figuring out exactly what it is. When I first started hearing the noise I was obsessed with finding out what it was, mainly because I thought it was coming from my home. I really started to think I would have to sell the house and get the heck out, but since I have heard it in other locations I guess that won't be necessary. Bottom line, since I can only hear the noise when things are very quiet (mostly at night) I decided to go with a little white noise. I bought a heppa filter and I crank it up to drown out the noise ( since it's a steady noise it's much more tolerable). For those of you who think it's aliens, the air vent, the water pipes... thanks for the input, but we are not stupid just frustrated. For delevin1 and maybe jwalker2007, I feel your pain. We are not crazy, our hearing is simply hyper sensitive to these low level noises. I thought about trying to record the noise and amplify it for the nonbelievers, but I don't really care who believes me anymore. Like I said, buy a heppa filter and forget about it!

We have had this problem in Chicago for over three years now.
First we thought it was the frig, the turned off the power main, still hear it. Sounds like a truck idling outside, but go outside and its dead quiet. Go inside and its omnidirectional in the home.
We installed airport noise abatement windows in our bedroom. That muffled the cars and voices outside, but did nothing for this low hum.

Among the things we checked:

* Hum heard with power main 'off'
* No attic fan
* No sump pump
* Gutters are tight
* roof antenna tight
* Chimney has a cap
* Someone mentioned it might be wind over the toilet roof vents/stacks. I don't know, anybody ever hear of this?
* Hot water tank new... 3 years old, seems quiet
* Heard with heat or a/c off.
* Plumbing seems quiet.
* We have flat roof vents, but so do our neighbors, don't hear the sound
* 75% of backyard is concrete, but I thought concrete is a sound blocker, not transmitter.
* Had gas lines checked, all OK
* Had chimney cleaned, some nesting and a dead bird clay liner shifted slightly, but otherwise OK.
* We have an extension back room on our second floor. Has one gable vent, separate from attic. Also has its own independent gas heater, we never use, but has its own vent stack on roof.

We are at a loss. Bothers me more than my wife. NOt loud, but low, fan and ear plugs do not mask it. ANY remedies you can offer? Solve this and I'll fly you in and treat you to any meal in any restaurant in Chicago you want. Really. Please help, Dave

Anybody??

I think this might help all of you I am into digital video recording and have searched out odd noises many times with my directional microphone. Check the spy or tech stores for directional listening device. I found the source of the noise in a three story building the noise was in the attic and we had started hearing it from the lowest level of the house.
I would suggest using this method at night when there are not so much noise in general.

Hope this helps

See Wikipedia The Hum aka Taos Hum

Yeah, I've read up on both Taos hum and Kokomo. At least Kokomo had a real cause, and the hum was eliminated. Unfortunately, that doesn't help...

While working in homes on repair jobs I've heard very low pitched humming noises coming from dryer exhaust vents, usually from the type with the single flap. This is when the dryer is NOT running. It would be easy to see if that is the problem by sticking an old rag or newspapers under the louver hood to keep the flap from moving. Be sure not to forget to remove the rag before using the dryer!

Ralph,
Was this type of low hum localized or could one hear it throughout the home? Thank you.

Dave, you can hear it in other parts of the house, depending where the dryer is located.
It all depends how large your house is, you're not living in the Playboy Mansion, are you?
I certainly hope I win that Steak dinner and you don't even have to fly me to Chicago, I just a quick 40 minutes away! :eek:

I too am experiencing a humming sound. It's like a transformer sound. Not real loud, but real annoying, especially at night. My son has also heard it, so I don't have a hearing problem.:) It's constant and loudest in the back of the house, primarily my bedroom. I had the power company out and they disconnected all power to the house and pump house at the transformer. It even shut down my neighbor's electricity. Guess that made them wonder. Still the sound was present. I have taken batteries out of everything with one. I can't sleep. It's making me crazy. My next step it to call my plumber and have him check everything that carries water. It's not a buzzing like bees or hornets or wasps. If anyone solves this, please let me know. Desperate:( , in the country, in Southern Oregon.

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Originally Posted by jwalker2007

Hello, I hope you folks can help me.

Recently, we have been hearing a loud, low frequency "hum" throughout our house. I have turned the main power off to determine whether it's electrical. It's not. The noise does sound like a "fog horn" going off several blasts at a time and the noise level is constant in every level/room.

I think this is a water pipe humming problem like other people have described. However, I have turned the water main off and the problem does not go away! A quick check of indoor faucets and toilets didn't really turn up the culprit.

I recently got a lawn sprinkler installed. I can't really check its pipes. Could this be the source of the problem too?

Before I call a plumber, is there anything else I should try? Attic/roof inspection? Gas line? Structure?

Any suggestion would be appreciated. This noise is very annoying.

Cheers.

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I am interest to hear if you got any answers. I too hear since 2006 a hum noise and I went to a german side www. Igzab.de also in english that my gve you a clou how difficult it is to find the hum noise. My problem is sleeping. What country do you live in.
The noise appears in nz germany switzerland usa etc
I would like to hear from you I just don't know how it would work

Hello. Well, the humming noise in my house is still there after a year. As I said before, we had the power cut by the power company. Still humming. Shut down the water pump at the pump house. Still humming. :confused: It was suggested that someone nearby was running a dialysis machine. Not. My closest neighbor is at least a quarter mile away. The hum is not outside, only heard inside, and mostly at night or early in the morning when there are no other distracting noises. As someone else has said, ear plugs do not help. I have decided I will have to live with this and have been offered no other suggestions
Sue... Southern Oregon