FAQs about building noise tracked to electrical system components, fixtures, devices, transformers, relays, or wiring.

This article series lists suggestions you can follow to track down and fix building sounds originating in electrical system components or devices.

Electrical Equipment or Electrical System Noise FAQs

These questions & answers about noises traced to building electrical systems, panels, wiring, devices, or equipment were posted originally

at ELECTRICAL SYSTEM NOISES where we give a catalog of common sources of these sounds along with links to individual diagnosis and repair articles for each noise source.

Watch out: Electrical System Noises can be signs of dangerous conditions: buzzing circuit breakers or fixtures may indicate that an electrical circuit is short circuiting or that a circuit breaker is not tripping when it should.

The risk is fire or electrical shock.

On 2019-04-10 by (mod) -

Crystal you can post a photo with a comment but the software doesn't accept sound recordings nor movies. You can, however email us a sound file for comment.

You will find organized help in noise identification and diagnosis at NOISE / SOUND DIAGNOSIS & CURE - home https://inspectapedia.com/noise_diagnosis/Building-Noise-Diagnosis.php

and detailed diagnosis and corrective measures by noise type or ultimately noise source found in the INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES found at the end of this article on this page

On 2019-04-10 by Crystal

Can anyone identify this horrendous noise in my wall ?

On 2018-09-20 by (mod) -

Jean

You have my sympathy but unfortunately this is not a question that can be answered with any reasonable degree of usefulness by a text and web postings. You need an on-site expert.

On 2018-09-19 20:09:42.039062 by Jean Margaret Oldham

IWhen my new neighbour in the apartment above me switches on his electrical appliances furniture in my flat reverberates & goes through me if I am sitting on any of my chairs, or am in bed. What do you think causes this & is it giving me lasting harm? The neighbour isnt at all co-operative.

On 2017-11-11 04:02:25.296953 by (mod) -

Sounds unlikely
Id look elsewhere

On 2017-11-10 15:02:48.876778 by Michelle M. Faith

What causes a noise in cable tv or internet wiring when the system is not in use by me? Is it possible that someone in an adjacent apartment is somehow connected into my wiring?

It has come to the point where I unplug both my tv and my computer when I'm not actually using them, but i still get these noises near the cable connection. Thanks.

On 2017-10-21 06:56:42.561238 by Arleen Young

Ok the 83 model mobile home. When the husband an 1st wife bought it the smoke alarm had caught fire. He never replaced it. Then later dwn the years i came along and the light switches have gone out in some parts of the house. No longer work. Never had fixed or chkd out. Then yrs went by nothing else wrong or happened.

Except air conditioner unit outside quit wrkng, too expensive to replace so jus bought 3window units. 1lrg and 2sm. Which ended up saving us a lot on the pwr bill. So its now 2017 the trailer is what 34 yrs old now. Jus this yr things hve strtd to happen and i read some things to b the cause

. the lrg window unit has ben causing the light throughout the hm to flicker badly when the compressor would kick in. So i know now that its probly cuz of its motor. But for the past 2yrs we've ben hving pwr surges a few times its ben twice in one day

. But not to often. But these last few mths we've ben experiencing breakers jus clicking off outa the blue. Not all the time. But i know i cant run certain things at the same time or the pwr will off. And its weird cuz they arent all connected in the same circut area.

Ok so a couple mths ago the kitchen ballast light fixture strtd giving us problems and it got to where the long bulbs didnt wana come on. They strtd flickering for a bit then come on.

Then it got to where i had to keep a sm stool near by and step up on the sink counter and mess with the bulbs by twistingvand turning and pulling them out but as i was doing this i could hear the buzzing and cracling going on and finally decided i wasnt guna try anymore abd it then just stoppd wrking so i put 2lamps to use for light in the kitchen until the husband finally bought a new all LED light fixture and installed it.

Ok well now since hes done that just in the kitchen area but never in the same spot in the ceiling there are these loud popping cracling noises.

And they've begun to happen more freaquently now. I said something about it when they 1st strtd but he didnt pay me no attention. So yesterday i decided to shut off the main breaker to the whole house and left it off for about 30mins and didnt hear those noises anymore. So i shut the pwr back on and it took a lil over an hour beforevthose popping crackling noises strtd again!

So i told the ole man what i did and why and as i was telling him one of those noises happened and o said there! Did u just hear that. He says i think so. But he hasnt thought to listen anymore cuz hes to worried about whats happening outside the box/hm! So now im really concerned cuz i dont know what to do.

I cant afford to pay someonevto come chk thongs out cuz im on disability. But the husband mkes very very good money but i dobt know if hell take care of it! So what should i do?!

Is it sonething to b concernd about?! Please help me decided on what to do. I dont wana die in a fire!" but i have bought a smoke alarm and have it it the kitchen near my room. And a fire extinguisher which dont know if it wrks or not cuz its as old as the hm. So please help guide me in the right direction.

Sincerely, Arleen Young

On 2017-07-06 13:38:36.415281 by (mod) -

Avoiding death by electrocution by failing to follow proper safety procedures.

On 2017-07-06 06:24:05.117355 by Yeaster123@gmail.com

In some utterances what is the first most thing in work with handling three phase wiring.

On 2017-07-06 06:16:15.268807 by Markauntani

In a home appliances load time causes any Thermo problem.

On 2017-02-06 01:58:34.561841 by Shanna

For months now there is a weird, repetitive kind of deep hum over and over in my daughter's room, you cab bear it in the bathroom & master also which flank her room. There are some wires coming into to house by her window on the roof. I am convinced the sound is coming from the roof. We checked in the attic but saw nothing. Her room is in the corner of the house, where all the hydro & tv wires are. Could it be the wires or something? At first we thought it was a fan spinning in the wind making a sound or the air exchanger but it seems to be coming from the corner roof where the wires are. Sometimes it speeds up but the sound stays the same. It's like a vibrating hum like counting, 1,2,3,4,5 timing. So off, it's driving me mental!!!

On 2016-12-16 by Clicking Noise

I have a small recording studio in an office complex and when ever I record a guitar I can hear a steady click sound through my amp. I traced it down to an combo fax, file server copier. I have to turn the breaker off to do my recording then remember to turn it back on. Any kind of solution to this? I've tried noise suppressing equipment and filters nothing seems to help.

Thanks,
Gary

On 2016-11-23 by (mod) -

A hum may indicate a dangerous condition or it might not: some lighting types or fixtures have a 60 cycle hum in normal operation. If you have two or more identical circuits by lighting type and one hums and another does not, I would turn OFF the hummer and leave it off for safety, and I'd call the electrician back to do the necessary diagnosis and repair.

It will be helpful to pin down the source of the noise.
If some of your lighting is low-voltage, I'd start by looking for a hum at the low voltage transformer.

On 2016-11-23 by Jeff

I just had a remodel done on my home, part of that was new electrical lights (install can lights)which required additional wiring to be ran.

One circuit of lights has a hum/buzz when they are on. It's only on one circuit of lights.

I should also mentioned that as a part of the electrical work, the main breaker box was relocated from one area to another. Any information or feedback would be appreciated. Thank You

...

Continue reading at ELECTRICAL SYSTEM NOISES - topic home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these related

Noise Articles

• NOISE / SOUND DIAGNOSIS & CURE - home
• ELECTRICAL SYSTEM NOISES
• SOUND CONTROL in BUILDINGS - managing to damp down normal noises from electrical equipment

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ELECTRICAL SYSTEM NOISE FAQs at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.

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INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES: ARTICLE INDEX to BUILDING NOISE DIAGNOSIS

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