That noise. No, I'm not imagining it.

[PaulSecteur]

Just inside the house or specific rooms, or in the localised area?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Have you eliminated 50hz as the hum? If you have any tuned instruments handy, it's irritatingly close to G, 2 octaves below middle C.

 

[stephec]

Ghosts?

 

[surfdude]

bees nest in your loft space

 

[RWright]

Do you have an attic fan that may be turning on and off? I have some people that live about 400 yards away with thick woods between us that sometimes play music and I hear their subwoofer. It is not loud but can be very annoying after a while. I even called the cops one night at midnight after hearing it for a couple of hours, I had had enough. I was amazed how quickly the cops got there. I even called them back after about 3 minutes to tell them not to bother, it has stopped now, they said we know, we have already been there and told them to shut it off.

 

[rich p]

The fan on your laptop?
Can your nearest and dearest or neighbours hear it?

 

[BAtoo]

If your're in a terrace house it could be your coming from neighbours house. Party walls in houses of that age are likely to be 9" solid walls with plaster either side - if you're unlucky only 4" walls - which are good sound transmitters. So anything in your house which you've ruled out could be going on next door. Dodgy fridge with a compressor running too frequently near to the party wall springs to mind.

 

[Chromatic]

Hearing problem?

Pardon?

 

[byegad]

I'd gladly trade the whistling tinnitus that I have been suffering for the past 2 years for a nice low hum! (The last thing I remember before blacking out was a loud whistling sound inside my head, and when I came round it was still there in the background and has been ever since.)

I've had that for the last 30 years. Five years ago it got louder! A hearing aid helped as the whistle is at 4000H and I've lost hearing at and above that frequency. With the hearing aid in it's back to its 25 year level, without it's bloody loud.

 

[BigAl68]

I know the Bristol hum which seemed to plague the city for years was put down to a large industrial fan creating a low frequency noise that then harmonised with certain buildings. It was supposed to have affected about 1 in 50 people.

Is there a possibility that there is a fan running somewhere near as you are in an urban area?

 

[Beebo]

Does it sound like this?
Hhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

[Joshua Plumtree]

I think it's the residual hum echoing through the aeons from the beginnings of time and space - or possibly your bowels.

 

[Globalti]

Yes, I do have experience of The Hum; my mum aged 84 has been suffering for the last four years. She got so upset about it that I drove down to Salisbury (5 hours away) to spend the weekend with her and try to get to the bottom of it. My hearing is good apart from the same whistling tinnitus as @ColinJ suffers but I couldn't hear a thing. I told her to wake me up when the hum started in the night, which she duly did. I went and sat on the end of her bed and could hear nothing, only absolute silence, while she said the hum was a s strong as ever. We came reluctantly to the conclusion that her GP and the various environmental officials, gas supplier and electricity supplier to whom she had complained, were all correct and the noise is some kind of tinnitus. Now that she has accepted that conclusion she finds it easier to deal with the noise, which bothers her much less nowadays.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Does it sound like this?
Hhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

No! It's got random mark/space ratio

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ....................................................................Hmmmmmmmmmmm...............Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................................................................................................Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..Hmmmmm...........................................Hmm...........

More like it?

 

[ColinJ]

No! It's got random mark/space ratio

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ....................................................................Hmmmmmmmmmmm...............Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................................................................................................Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..Hmmmmm...........................................Hmm...........

More like it?

Perhaps you have a fly or a wasp trapped somewhere in the room!