Can you hear electricity?

[Guest]

Am really struggling at the moment as our electricity seems really noisy. A continuous vey high pitched whine. I seem to be the only person in the house that can hear it - and it is driving me mad.

Others think I am making it up.

Can you hear it, and what do you do to stop it / disguise it ?

[simon]

I’ve heard different light bulbs buzzing in the past .
I now suffer with tinnitus so I find it hard hearing anything much 😜

[mickey house]

When Is an Electrical Noise in the House a Reason to Worry?

“Do you hear a buzzing sound? I could swear I hear a buzzing sound. Anyone else hear that?”

Have you said something like this before in your home? It may have been nothing—an “audio illusion,” it happens. It may have been minor trouble. Or it could have indicated a serious electrical concern. We’re going to look at household electrical noises and when you should call an Amherst, NY electrician to find out if there’s a repair problem that needs to be taken care of.

Electrical sounds are normal but usually quiet

Does electricity make a sound? Electrical appliances do—and these sounds are all around you in your home. However, you can’t hear most of them, and some people’s ears are more attuned to the sound of electricity than others. This sound is electricity itself, but the sound of alternating current moving through wires or appliances. Alternative current (AC) causes fluctuations in magnetic fields, and this causes vibrations. Most of the time, this isn’t harmful, and only the higher voltage appliances will create an audible sound.

Okay, but when should I worry about these noises?

The short answer to this is “whenever the noise is louder than normal.” The buzz of alternating current in your house from wires, monitors, lights, computers, and everything else forms a white-noise backdrop for your life. When the white noise becomes something more noticeable—and irritating—is when you should start to think about it.

If you detect the noise coming from a specific appliance or fixture, like a lamp, then you should unplug the appliance immediately. We also recommend you don’t plug anything else into that specific socket until you’ve had an electrician examine it. The appliance may also need to be examined. For larger lighting fixtures, you may need to replace the bulb, or you may have the wrong bulb in place.

A major source of worry is when you hear a buzzing sound coming from the electrical panel. The panel makes a dull humming noise like any other electrical component, but you shouldn’t be able to hear it standing a few feet away from the panel. If it is this loud, it’s warning of a major problem within one of the breakers. (Or the fuses if you still have an old fuse box. Please get that updated right away.) This is a case where trying to shut off the electricity is a bad idea, since you’ll have to shut it off at the panel, and touching a malfunctioning panel may deliver a high voltage shock. Call for a licensed electrician right away—you don’t want to take chances with a malfunctioning electrical panel.

You may also hear buzzing coming from the walls, which warns of damaged wires. If you know what breakers control what parts of the home’s electrical system (and it’s helpful to have the breakers labeled) you can shut off the power to those circuits and see if the noise stops. Call an electrician once you’ve either done this or you can’t determine the source of the noise.

[mariechez]

Try turning your devices off one at a time until you have discovered which one it is. As we get older and our hearing changes you can hear things at frequencies you couldn't before. Might be worth getting your hearing checked as well.

[wobblywibbly]

Usually high pitched whines are from switched mode powers supplies. Check chargers and inline power supplies for laptops DVD player etc. Hums are usually from iron cores transformers in bigger power supplies like stereo amplifiers etc happy hunting 🙂

[myaquarium]

Electricial frequency is 50hz ac in your home. So it’s possible you could hear it. It could also be your imagination. If your in a sound box used for hearing examinations you will hear that really low buzz you probably are thinking of. It’s probably a natural phenomenon we all experience.
Sometimes I can hear my sky q box buzzing and it disappears if I turn it off for a few minutes. As someone has mentioned turn off appliances one at a time until the sounds gone.

[Weddingnyc]

Yeah, and it drives me mad. I can’t use touch lamps, they seem to be the worst.
We also had humming from a pylon when I was little, it used to give my mum headaches.
I’ve also experienced humming from the cheap alternatives of Hue bulbs.
The worst has to be cat deterrents though, I can hear them from several gardens away.

[kk20]

you cant hear electricity but you can hesr appliances converting electricity to a more suitable voltage. some appliances use transformers which have copper windings. usually these windings are glued down with resin. over time the resin or glue can melt away meaning they cause a slight buzzing noise. the iron cores of transformers do hum. this tends not to be high pitched though.

power supplies of other electronic devices switch on and off at fast rates, this is to make the electriciry suitable for use in lower power devices. cheaper ones use cheap coils which can produce a whine at different frequencies. these do tend to be high pitched.

energy saving bulbs work the same way and can also whine. these tend to be mid pitched and usually the loudest.

culprit wise? cheap laptop power supplies, old CFL energy saving bulbs, tv in standby are common ones.

[Loopylooloo]

If I am charging my toothbrush I can hear it and drives me mad, but generally dont hear the rest of the normal electric.

[Guest]

Thank you all. Really helpful.

I will walk around the house and turn things off one by one. It's not buzzing it an extremely extremely high pitched constant whine. I am finding it really loud, but then it's one of those things that once you hear it you can't unhear it if you know what I mean

We have recently had a new wireless alarm system installed. The old one was hard wired. Would that do it ?

I am trying to think what else has changed.

P.S we do have a cat deterrent. That goes in pulses and I can hear it when outside but not inside.

Am glad I am not going mad !