Finding the Source of Low Frequency Noise in My Home

First, get a sensitive microphone, a preamp and a scope, to verify it actually is an airborne sound. (It could be many other things, from a bad tooth filling getting RF to a brain issue). If it ens up not to be a real audible sound, get serious about it. S.M.

Thanks will try your suggestions. i am convinced it is a real sound/vibration as i can escape it outdoors. The electrician "thought" he could hear it but could not trace it. my husband can't hear it at all. Will bring in others with sensitive hearing to verify.

Women are typically more sensitive to higher frequencies, so I would search for a sound at the high frequency level....The only thing I can think of at high hz is flourescent lights...Maybe you have a bee hive in the attic....good luck

Do you "hear" it only in house ? Some ear problems can lead to such "noises" which are of internal origin and not really generated by a source out of the body.

Yes, only in the house. Every room and garage.

Check TV guy ropes and pole .... It could be wind generated. I would be checking for gaps or holes where where the wind is "whistling" throught them. Regards, Sapper

Thanks.

Anything hung on a pole outside like an antenna?

We had a simular issue turned out to be the antenna mast vibrating in the slightest of breeze and sending the noise thru the whole house. I wrapped it in piping insulation and it stopped.

Brenda

Do you hear the sound in your neighbors house?

Do you have overhead feed of electricity?

Where do you live?

If you live close to that big rock (Table Mountain) you may have excessive water pressure in the water mains and there may be a pressure reducing valve at your place. Some of them do make a sound when at a critical pressure.

If you are in the Cape Flats you may be on top of the fault line/aquifer/wetland (one of the southern branches of the East African Rift Valley) and may be picking up vibrations from industrial area.

Haven't been in my neighbours house but i will ask if i may give it a go. No overhead feed of electricity. Thanks that sounds feasible re water pressure. We do live under the BIG ROCK. They (who?) have recently put in new pipes along our neighbouring roads. I think they were water - will check. That could be it; we do have a pressure geyser. Will get the plumber on Monday. Thanks very much.

If it is coming from an underground source like a water main, the reason you only hear it inside of the house is because your house, walls, floors, ceiling etc., provide a sounding board to amplify the vibrations. Outdoors there is nothing connecting to the vibration except your feet. There are (or used to be) bass speaker systems that do exactly the same thing; instead of vibrating a coil and cone to produce bass tones through the air, you attached them to your wall or floor and they vibrated the entire structure.

1) Railroad freight trains about 1.5Km away from my home manage to rumble our larger picture windows when passing by, but the correlation is obvious because the train can be heard at that distance.

2) Wind passing over an open chimney top can cause the column of air in the chimney to resonate, like a giantantic flute, a very very low bass tone, below the hearing threshold of some people, but I could feel the vibrations on my chest. It only happened in the summer when there was not a fire in fireplace with wind from a particular direction and a certain velocity.

3) The forges in an open die forge shop in northern Illinois manage to shake the ground in the parking lot, 200m from the shop itself. I suspect the ground shakes at distances farther away but I've never checked it beyond the parking lot. Very annoying for a visitor, I can't imagine working there.

The wings of 10 billion butterflies flapping in unison...

Check this its called Taos Hum.