I have a random beeping type sound in my house that mainly occurs in the middle of the night. I disconnected the hardwired smoke alarms as well as my security alarm system. The sound is lower pitched than the low battery alert for a smoke or co detector and almost sounds like the new text message alert on a cell phone. I checked all of the electrical devices and appliances and can’t pinpoint it. Has anyone else had this happen and if so what did you determine was causing it?
I had similar thing happen once and it turned out to be a dying battery in a musical greeting card the grandparents sent my boys.
If you have kids, it could be a dying battery in almost anything they own…
Do you have a cordless phone? Dying batteries in the handsets can cause them to chirp.
This was my guess, too.
My computer had a few minute battery backup in case of power outage, and when it started to go bad it made an annoying beeping noise… but it certainly wasn’t restricted to time of day.
I had that going on once. I finally narrowed down the sound to the kitchen. I checked every appliance again and again. Could not figure out where the sound was coming from. I started to think the can lights must be haunted. It turned out to be the digital temperature probe in a drawer that was dying.
The home improvement program “Ask This Old House” had a recent episode in which they discussed various ways of adding surge protection in a house. One problem they addressed was how to add surge protection to a wall-mounted flatscreen TV that was plugged into an outlet immediately behind it. His solution was to replace the regular wall outlet with one that incorporated a surge protector. He showed the green LED on the new outlet that would remain lit as long as the surge protector was valid. And, he said, since you can’t see the green LED behind the TV, the outlet would beep when the surge protector stopped working. That sounds like something that will drive the homeowner crazy, as they’re never going to remember that it’s there.
That’s just… EVIL! :mad:
I’m ordering one, tonight!
Did you see this?
Or how about this one.
As to the OP, maybe someone is getting a text message. Perhaps someone living in your attic.
Odds are that the noise is there during the day, and only the relative silence of the night makes you aware of it.
A low battery is most likely - confiscate all known devices (batteries in greeting cards are just evil), and put them in the garage/shed/ under fav neighbor’s bedroom window.
This includes clocks with back-up batteries!
If still there, unplug everything for the few hours everybody will be asleep - be sure to plug the fridge in real quick.
Still there? Disconnect the master circuit breaker.
Still there? you have mice
Years ago, I had an apartment and they had mice years before and laid down some glue traps. I heard a squeak at regular intervals and after a day or so, I found a mouse on a glue trap, that was never taken up from years before.
We recently had the same problem. After a 1am search for rodents, I traced it to a floor standing fan in the bedroom. It rotates while blowing air and this was producing a faint squeak. A squirt of WD-40 fixed it up.
Happened in a hotel room my in-laws were staying in once. I traced it down to a battery-operated alarm on the window.
We have a very strange house noise-it happens in the upstairs bedroom-its a little buzzing/tapping sound that happens just before sunrise. It is the wall vibrating and bumping into a very heavy wall-hung mirror. I hear it mostly in spring-fall-rarely in winter.
I guess it could be a number of things, but my first reaction was: ants !
Assuming it is electrical, then first is to confirm a time or establish conditions that make it reproducible. Then determine which circuit breaker (or breakers) elminate the noise when off. Possible that two different breakers (either one off or both off) eliminate the noise. That knowledge would make finding the noise source even easier.
If you have a fireplace, check to make sure there’s no bird in your chimney. They can sound like a muffled chirp at regular intervals.
Sounds like spirits to me. Are you certain that the house is not built on an old graveyard? Was anyone brutally murdered in your house? I suggest you consult your local priest for your options vis-à-vis an exorcism. As for immediate relief you might try lighting some sage and mumbling something in Latin. If your Latin is weak you can always recite Lorem Ipsum.
Note: If your hand passes through the matchbox when you try to pick it up to light the sage the victim of the brutal murder may have been you. If this is the case please leave the house immediately as haunting is in extremely poor taste. Luckily I don’t think the rules here prohibit ghostposting, so at least you’ll have something to do with your eternity.