Humming Noise

[Axel]

Yeah, I see your point in terms of energy levels required to make a 'humm', but you have to appreciate that nowerdays there is such a sea of electromagnetic radiation at many different frequencies coming from a multitude of sources - TV, WiFi, Cellphones, etc, that, like a tooth filling picking up a radio station, it's feasible that something like this maybe behind the mystery.

US Military has a high power microwave beam for crowd control 'Less than Lethal' weapons...

 

[Agile]

US Military has a high power microwave beam for crowd control 'Less than Lethal' weapons...

I think you are getting very muddled!

Microwave energy only has an RF heating effect and would only cook them!

There is a very low frequency audio signal ( about 16 Hz ) which can have disorienting effects and that may be what you are confusing the situation with.

RF heating starts at about 300 V/m field strength but thats the maximum allowable field strength which results in about 1°C rise in body tissue temperature at up to 30 MHz. At higher frequencies the penetration is less and leads to greater surface absorbtion.

Tony

 

[Reidy]

Went over to the mast yesterday this does not appear to emit any noise, on the other side of it is a gas plant which did emit alot of noise but this can not be heard outside our house. When returned home the boiler was vibrating for a time but this then stopped - weird!

There doesnt appear to be any noise around the house, it appears to be inside but just cannot locate it. EHO is supposed to be making some investigations in the area and coming back out - will ask him to see if
he can get access into neighbour's house. Literally stumped now - trying to learn to live with it but it is really difficult to sleep through! Earplugs just lessen the noise but it can still be heard.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[Softus]

Railway nearby and phone mast.

I apologise if you've already provided this information, but how near are those to your house?

You never answered the above question, and now you reveal this:

Went over to the mast yesterday this does not appear to emit any noise, on the other side of it is a gas plant which did emit alot of noise...

You have a railway line, a radio mast, and a noisy gas plant, all apparently near to the house. It would actually be quite surprising if you didn't have noises.

I'm starting to think that this is a wind up.

 

[Reidy]

This isnt a wind up and I did reveal the railway and phone mast, was not aware of the gas pipe before travelling over to the mast!

Read the post again and you will find that that I have already stated that the mast is 300 yards away as is the railway and there is also a new housing estate to the rear which ceased building about 4 months ago.

We are aware of the sounds of the railway as this was there before we lived at the house the only sound that comes from that is the trains which we are used to having lived there since 1985.

 

[Reidy]

Softus I note from one of your earlier posts you suggested paying an
expert to track the noise down, for a while now I have been looking on the web for such an expert - can only find ones for commercial stuff - do you have any experience of anyone who can help or any website that would be useful or does anyone else on this post know of any?

Have asked the EHO to refer us to someone with more sensitive equipment for the last 2 weeks but he just says he will get back to us.

 

[Reidy]

EHO been out today, he still could not hear the noise himself but it registered on his meter, but not high enough to constitute a noise nuisance that he would investigate, although he has agreed to bring out another colleague next week to see if he can hear it and to see what level it registers on his meter!!!! (Why I do not know as he says he cannot investigate further).

He has also agreed to refer us to a company they use who specialise in the types of matters that the Local Authority cannot proceed with and that they may be able to attend in the evening as the EHO cannot. The EHO is of the opinion that it is within the house and not coming from outside.

We may get somewhere with the referral to someone with more specialist equipment hopefully.

 

[Agile]

Please keep us informed.

I still think that you are somehow oversensitive to what must be a very low level sound. But I dont know what you could do to desensitise yourself apart from creating sounds to mask it. Or post hypknotic suggestion?

I can sleep on a boat, plane or pretty much anywhere as my brain ignores sounds that I am not interested in. Much the same as a young mother sleeps whatever she hears but wakes immediately if her baby cries.

When I went to school we lived next to a railway and I slept through the early trains but woke to the 0710 train as that was the time I needed to get up!

Tony

 

[maltaron]

Probably will not help you but a similar thing happenned when I was a sound engineer(now retired) I was called to a Local Church to investigate a hum on the sound system. When I arrived and switched on the system I could not detect any hum even with headphones connected to the loudspeaker cables. This went on for two months, phone call from the vicar, hum is there. attend no hum. I eventually worked out that the phone calls came on the Mondays after the first and third Sundays of the month. After tedious enquiries It appeared that a certain quireman only attended on those two Sundays. A quck investigation found a loose floor board where he stood, under the board a box with a microphone cable joint and a pyro mains cable. When he stood on the board the box touched the pyro and caused an earth loop. Problem solved with a bit of plastic between the two. The moral!! dont give up, you will find it in the end. Good Luck.

 

[robocop]

REIDY ,
I have had the exactly same problem in my detached house now for about a year,I have done virtually everthing you have to find out where the humming is coming from but it still persists (my missus can hear it too ) mainly as you say between 02.00am and about 05.00am.

I am monitoring the replies to you with interest as it is also driving me crazy.

 

[Softus]

I still think that you are somehow oversensitive to what must be a very low level sound.

I don't agree.

 

[Reidy]

Robocop it is nice in a weird way to find someone else who this is happening to as people do tend to think we are a bit strange as we are probably becoming obsessed with it now but it is driving us mad.

A second EHO came out today on a third visit from them and it was kind of good that he could actually hear the noise (hurray your thinking its not madness after all). He could hear it straight away and in all the rooms in the house. It is louder upstairs towards the rear of the house.

On the downside he did not know what it was or a solution to it - he was going to liase with the other EHO to see if they could come up with something. Again we asked for a referral to someone with more sensitive equipment and was told he would look into it. So we will wait and see - there is another case of something similar in our area Warrington in 1991 which was never solved and he did let slip today another case not too far from where we live who are having a similar problem but they think that is down to a pumping station but that has been ongoing for 18 months.

It is not something that you can get used to - if we knew what the source was then perhaps we could cope with it e.g. computer noise at work used to that so you can cope with that, the trains, we are used to those so we can sleep through that. Its the not knowing what it is or where it is coming from that is demoralising.

We will wait and see what today brings.

 

[maltaron]

Hi Reidy, Just another thought/comment. I live in a hamlet in Cornwall and get a similar noise at night. Only noticable at night because of general country sounds in the day. This noise comes from a crude road drain outside of the bungalow. It is just the top cut out of the drain with a gulley grating on top. It allways flows with ground water into the adjacent river and the suction down the hole acts like a siren. On a serious note, have you checked for battery backup on any equipment you have? some of these, such as UPS units, have inverters in which can be noisy if faulty.

 

[Reidy]

Checked all batteries we can think of phone, alarm, clocks etc. Only thing left to do is pull up floor boards in all the rooms, have already checked the accessible boards on landing and stairs for pipes vibrating and faulty wiring. Thanks for your suggestions though.

 

[Softus]

...another case not too far from where we live who are having a similar problem but they think that is down to a pumping station but that has been ongoing for 18 months.

So exactly how, and when, did you come to decide that the source of the noise isn't the gas pumping station that's on your doorstep?

We will wait and see what today brings.

And what did Thursday bring?