I have been hearing a peculiar sound in my home and am wondering if anyone is hearing anything similar. The sound is best described as a low frequency cycling ON/OFF 'pump type' noise. It is irregular in period, with ON and OFF duration about 1-20 seconds random. There is a distinctive 'thud' when it shuts off. I can hear it 24 hours a day, but mostly it can be detected when it is quiet at night. On occasion the sound seems to be absent altogether.

I have been checking all around my house and the neighborhood with a stethoscope and am coming up with nothing. It was still present when the neighborhood power was off for transformer replacements. I have eliminated my water, solar, power, and gas utilities. The sound it more noticeable indoors and upstairs. At night, the irregular nature of the noise can be very annoying. My only option now seems to be white noise to mask the sound at night. I do have tinnitus and mild hyperacusis, this may be exacerbating the issue.

Fridges hum and end with a thud. Mine is almost new and seems to have odd cycles, sometimes staying on for minutes and other times seconds.

I'm assuming that you have eliminated that, but I still wonder, because my fridge sounds totally different in the quiet of the night. I also swear that mostly it's a quiet hum, but occasionally is a loud hum.


OOPS! You heard it when the power was out. No clue then. I have a transformer on my gas furnace that hums but not when power is out... my parents' house had a transformer to one side of the electrical panel... any electric vents in your attic? But again, power out... where are those new transformers on the street located?

Houses have noises, and it's almost impossible to track down where those noises come from.

The power was out and you heard this noise. How do you know the power was out? Was there a blackout?

Are you asking if this is something ghostly, or other worldly? If so, you won't get many answers in this forum, the hearing forum. The hearing forum deals with hearing issues.

Have you had your hearing checked? Maybe it's a hearing issue, and not something in your home.

How long have you been in this house? How long have you had this tinnitus and hyperacusis and how is it being treated?

Running around with a stethoscope seems rather extreme, maybe obsessive, for something that may be as simple as sounds carried and modified through vents and walls and maybe typical and normal.

Here's a cute true story that starts out paranormal.... a couple bought an old nursing home on a river. A porch full of rocking chairs ran the length of the house. Every morning at the same time, all the rockers started rocking. Nothing could be seen, heard, or even felt through the floor boards. Finally it turned out that 2 - 3 miles away, across the river, there was a power plant. The huge turbines started every morning and the vibration traveled under the river to the house. The nature of the terrain carried it very well.