High pitched sound in the house

[chessu]

Hello!

I was hoping someone has had experience tracking down high pitched noise in the house. It's been going on for about two months now and it's driving me absolutely insane. Does anyone know of any devices or apps that could help me track it down because for the life of me I can't figure out what it is. It seems louder in my room and more so when I put my head on the pillow, but that might be cause my room is really small and also because when I'm trying to sleep I'm more likely to hear it. It is on 24/7 and I don't know if I am imagining it or it occasionally gets louder. Earplugs seem to make it louder as well (as if it was travelling through the floor).

I have tried to keep my window open to add some background noise, but I work shifts and live in the quietest area possible, so that doesn't make any difference. I work on headsets for 11h, so I don't really want to have to play music or background noises to fall asleep, I just want quiet. I have stuck my ear to everything and anything electronic I can find in the house, but nothing seems to be it:

• I turned off the socket switches in my room and have tried removing all laptops etc. from my room
• I've listened to all the radiators (though the heating is turned off)
• There are a couple of air vents, one in my room and a couple outside it. I haven't been able to quite climb up to them, but moving closer doesn't seem to make it louder
• There's a WiFi extender outside my door, but that seems to be a different frequency (I've also turned off that socket)
• Tried listening to the pipes near toilets etc., also don't seem to be it
• Lamps are unlikely as they would've been off for ages by the time I get back and it would be a 24/7 noise
• Didn't take the batteries out, but did listen for the smoke detector, not it either
• Turned off the telly
• Listened around in the kitchen (which is directly under my room) and turned off as many mains as I could - no change
• as far as I know there shouldn't be any bug repellents etc. in the house
• There is an old boiler and a pump on the floor, but again, when I stuck my ear to it, I can't hear anything

There are a couple of rooms in the house I can't access and one of them does have a fan, which I think could be the culprit (I'm not sure what it is as I'm not allowed in that room - I'm not sure what could be top secret, sound like a fan have to be on at all times? Also, when I move nearer to the door, the fan sounds completely different to the noise annoying me), but I did once secretly turn off the mains for that block of the house and the noise still persisted. I have a live in landlord who doesn't speak much English and also doesn't care much (but I am currently unable to move). He is a lot older as well, so he can't hear anything, so it's quite hard to get him to look into it. I will try to talk to him when I finally see him (shift work..), but until then, does anyone have any other suggestions, I could try to check or suggest to him that might be the issue.

doorbell? Ours whines sometimes.

Could it be tinnitus?

Could you be suffering from tinitus(spelling?). I can often hear a radio at night, or sometimes the tank filling, but it's all in my ears. The fact you said earplugs don't work made me wonder. Alternatively, are you sure the noise is inside and not external - a chiller or refrigeration unit nearby perhaps?

I used to think that I was hearing noise from a factory until I moved away from the factory and the noise stayed because it was tinnitus. Its worse when its quite, I don't notice it at all through the day when there is other noise.

quiet, not quite!

Definitely not tinnitus, I can't hear it anywhere else but the house.

I'm pretty sure it's not outside as opening/closing the window doesn't make any difference

Is there a way to check the doorbell?

the fridge? ours can be mightily annoying

Find the speaker yokimabus that is the sound for the doorbell. Ours is a plastic rectangle in the hall.

I think tinnitus too - especially as you spend a long time with headphones on and earplugs don't make a difference to you. It doesn't have to be constant to be tinnitus. I think it might be quite mild, but you are noticing it more in a quiet place. Please see your GP and get your hearing tested.

My bedside lamp/clock/radio thing makes a noise if it is plugged in. I keep it permanently switched off now

We had a faulty lightbulb make a high pitched noise after when it was warmed up (so we didn't associate it with switching it on) - took us ages to work out where the noise was.

The other one - are you in a town? We went past an off license the other day and the kids went oeeeeeeeewwwwww - lets go away from here" they had a "mosquito" anti-loitering device - only young people can hear in that range apparently.

Gas or electric meter wheels turning? Our gas meter makes a very high pitched squeak.

We have also had a bedside clock that made a high-pitched whine. At the moment the worst culprit is the shaving socket in the bathroom mirror. If we have anything plugged into that (toothbrush charger etc) it makes a noise. It doesn't bother DH but I can't bear it.

Do you have a dishwasher? When the salt or rinse runs out they emit a high pitched whistle. I only discovered that's what it was from an episode of The good wife where they were trying to figure it out - had been bugging me for weeks and no one else could hear it!

Thanks a lot everyone!

I'll definitely go see my GP just in case - I'll try anything to make it stop! -, but I do think it's something in this house rather than my ears.

Fridge - I considered it as it is just below my room and also back in my maiden home (where I've just come back), I had a similar issue, but it was a different pitch/quieter and the first time I heard it was when my mum had replaced the fridge, so I found the culprit easy. It was luckily a bit quieter and the outside noises were louder, so it wasn't that much of an issue. I tried listening out for the one here, but it doesn't even make any normal fridge noises let alone any pitching ones.

I'll definitely have a look around for the doorbell box and the gas meter!

I've turned off all sockets in my room, so can't be anything plugged in there.

Lamps - It's broad daylight now and the lamps may have been on maybe 6h ago if at all and I can still hear it, so probably not the bulbs

I thought about the 'loitering devices', but it is an incredibly quiet neighbourhood and I've never seen any youngsters around, so seems unlikely.

No dishwasher. We do have a washing machine in the kitchen that I could check.

It's driving me completely insane! I'm going to ask the landlord to turn off all the mains and turn them on one by one when I see him, hopefully that will narrow it down. I will also write a letter to the neighbours asking if by any chance they've gotten a pest control device or something (I can't hear anything else from next door, but who knows..)

I had the same, I'm pretty sure it was coming from the party wall.

I would lie in bed and it was like a high pitched whine, DH couldn't hear it but that's nothing to go by. Sometimes it would suddenly stop in the early hours and it was wonderfully silent. This went on for about a year, but I haven't heard it now for some time.

If I put my ear on the wall adjoining next door it would be quite loud, but DH still couldn't hear it. If I put my head under the quilt it would deaden it, it definitely wasn't tinnitus. We have power cables fairly near the house but there was no sound outside.

It drove me crackers, you have my sympathy op. I'm now worried it might start up again one day.

Do any of your neighbours have the little speakers in the garden to deter moles? I can hear that noise, and mouse repelling thingies (plug in) when none of my family can. Awful high pitched noises!

First up I'd suggest turning the mains fuse off so all power in the house goes out, once done can you still hear the noise??

If not you know it's the house and not you

Then if you go to gp.....

If not....

Turn in the fuse but only leave on one circuit st a time - once you know which circuit the noise comes from narrow it down

Likely things:

Smoke alarms
Fridge
Wifi box
Extractor fans
Light bulbs
Door bell
Sky box
DVD player
Laptop or pc fans/screens
Xbox

also look for the outside stopcock. Most likely in the pavement or in the front garden next to where the front gate used to be.

You need two people for this.

One to turn it on and off and on and off, the other (with the youngest ears) to stand in the kitchen and see if the noise starts and stops.

I have tinnitus but I'm only aware of it in the quiet atmosphere of being at home, especially in bed at night,
I don't notice it at all in any other environment out of the house due to all the background noise.
For years I didn't even realise I had tinnitus, I just thought the high pitched whistle I could hear was the sound of electrical equipment like tv's and radios left on standby

We had this a couple of months ago I won't bore you with the mounting hysteria of trying to figure out what it was, especially as my hearing us much sharper than my husband's and he couldn't really hear it but it ended up, weirdly, being a battery-operated fire alarm in a box in the attic -- our box, which had been up there untouched since we'd moved into the house five years earlier. No idea what set it off, and would have thought batteries long dead.

Sympathies, though. I was driven mad by it. Check your attic. I also discovered during the hunt that there were two other attic spaces in the house I'd never even noticed we had.

Our Dimmer switches make a high pitched sound.

Still haven't seen the landlord so haven't been able to switch off the mains (I'd do it secretly, but it then also resets the pumps etc., which I don't know how to set back to normal). Went straight to the kitchen/downstairs this time after work (usually I only go down after I've laid down and it's already whistling in my ears). I may have heard it faintly, but it was faint enough for me to think 'has it stopped!?', so for the time being I'm narrowing it down to upstairs. Found what I think might be the doorbell box and taken that off the list as well. No dimmers and everything else mentioned I've already checked as well

Still to check
Neighbours
Switching off mains
Tinnitus (though I still think it's unlikely as I haven't had this issue staying at friends' etc.)
There are probably a few stopcocks and other valves in the house which I wouldn't even think to check, so thanks for this suggestion!
I assume we must have an attic, though this might be an impossible one to check for me... :/
The 'fan' (or whatever mysterious thing) in that locked room is still an object of interest of mine, though getting nearer to the door I hear less of the noise, but I feel like these things may have started happening at the same time.

What I wouldn't give for this to stop!

Google 'the hum'