For the last two years, I’ve heard an occasional beep in my room, while laying in bed. The beep is not continuous nor does it happen very often. In fact, I’ve only heard it about five or six times in two years.
At first I thought it was me dreaming or imagining it, but then I heard it a few times when I was wide awake and just lying there. it’s a very faint beep and it’s only one, so it’s hard to track down the source of it when you never know when it will happen again.
Now…I don’t have a lot of things in my room that can beep. That’s the thing of it, I don’t really have ANYTHING in my room that can beep. I don’t even have a radio or clock in there. What I do have is a bed, blanket, lamp, two box fans and that’s it. So what on earth can be beeping?
I know it’s not coming from outside, because I have all the windows shut and this beeping is right next to me.
It last happened just a few minutes ago. This time I heard two or three beeps in short order and from the same spot they always come from, to the left of me.
Thinking about what was over there, I came to the conclusion that it can only be one thing. The surge protector that both box fans are plugged into.
So I searched “Surge protector” and “beeping”…and…yes, they can beep…
…when the battery is low…
But mine doesn’t run on batteries, it’s plugged into the wall.
It also says a surge protector can beep if there are power overloads, but that it would be one, long beep…and this isn’t a long beep, it’s a short one.
Anyway, long story short, I can’t see how it’s anything other than the surge protector, but I don’t know why that would beep. I didn’t even know it was possible for it to beep before today.
Have you checked throughout the house for dying batteries in your CO or smoke detectors? I would hear the one in our basement beeping from the 3rd floor of the house, and it took a while to track down.
It’s not the smoke detector, I just changed the battery in that two weeks ago (and that beep is very loud when the battery is low). Tested it after I put the battery in and it works fine.
This beep is coming from the left of me, which, there’s only the two fans, the surge protector, and my bedroom window.
No. I live in an apartment and outside my window is just a walkway to get to another (just one) apartment next to mine.
But I have my window closed and the sound the two fans make pretty much drown any other sound out (including if my phone rings, in the living room or if someone knocks on my door. If I can’t hear those things, I’m not going to hear anything outside my closed window)…the only sound the fans don’t drown out is the beep, because that’s right next to me, somewhere, to my immediate left.
I mean, it’s GOT to be the surge protector. There is no other thing it can be. Not to mention surge protectors can beep, as I found out today. So, really, the question is more “Why is my surge protector beeping?”
No, it’s just to have more outlets. I only have one in my room, but need an outlet for the fans and the lamp. I had other things plugged in as well, in the past, but right now those are the only three things.
Never know when I might need to plug something else in in there, though.
Surge protectors and outlet strips normally don’t make any noise at all. For comparision, a UPS will make noise, primarily when the power’s out and it’s running on battery. Some will also beep if the power dips or spikes briefly. You’d know if you had a UPS as they’re roughly shoebox-sized and heavy.
If you look up the model name/number of your outlet strip, you should be able to see if it does have any ability to make noise.
Just possibly - the remote receiver for a ceiling fan or light? They tuck away in the base/box and might have been there for years. Occasional line hiccups, faults or a very distant remote signal might make it beep.
The surge protector might beep to indicate it’s battery is weak. Not discharged, since the power is still on, but telling you that it’s nearing the end of its service life & now has little capacity. It’d be stupid easy to see if that’s the source of your noise; just unplug it from the wall and look / listen for how it signals a loss of power.
Since you live in an apartment, you might be hearing a beep coming from some other unit. Yes, you *think *the fans drown out all noise. But probably not 100% of it. So somebody 3 apartments away has a beeping something that sometimes you can just barely hear.
Depending on random factors, the pipes or conduits in the walls can conduct sound better than the air between your bedroom and your living room. So the fact the fans mask noises from your own living room is not proof positive that they mask 100% of all noises from all sources.
Another question: Is your hearing normal? And normal for what age?
This was my thought. When one was intermittently beeping in my apartment, I mis-identified the room it was coming from. Either that or an Annoy-o-Tron.
Somebody posted a similar thread a few years ago. They eventually dug carefully through all the drawers in the nightstand beside their bed. And buried in all the clutter was a wristwatch which beeped weakly every few hours to signal that its battery was almost dead.
I suggest the OP dig through all the drawers in the bedroom looking for forgotten things with batteries.
The surge protector would be easy to test. Move it and see if the sound moves with it, the next time you hear it. Have you tried unplugging it to see if you can get it to beep?
Something with batteries would still be my guess, though. Batteries make a little less power when they are cold, so they’ll first signal they’re low in the very early morning, when your house is coldest. You checked the smoke detector, but are you sure you only have one? Or that you don’t have a CO detector?
I don’t have a ceiling fan in my apartment, though.
I have a lamp in my bedroom, that plugs into the outlet, it’s not an overhead one (there is no overhead one, nor ones on any of the walls).
I don’t keep a battery in it, but it doesn’t really matter…the beeping happens so rarely and inconsistently that I have no idea when it will happen again. It’s gone months in between me hearing it, so I’m not sure unplugging it would do anything, but I’ll try it. : ) Thanks for the suggestion.
I’ll also try…
Thank you for this info.
This just isn’t it…trust me. And this also answers your later question about my hearing, my hearing is very good. I’m 34 years old.
You can tell when a sound is coming from right next to you. This beep is in my room. There is no question about that. It’s in my room, for sure. In fact, it’s very close by and it’s to the left of me…and the only things that are to the left of me are two fans, the closed window, and the surge protector. I doubt the fans are beeping.
I don’t have any drawers in my bedroom and I don’t own anything that operates on batteries other than the smoke alarm.
In my bedroom there are four things (five if you include the surge protector that the things are plugged into): Two fans, a lamp, and a bed. That is it. I don’t have any compartments to keep anything. I don’t even have a table for the lamp to go on. I don’t own any watches. There’s not even a clock or radio in my bedroom. I have one clock and that’s out in the living room, but it doesn’t make any noise, it just tells time. It doesn’t have an alarm on it or radio or anything.
I really do appreciate the suggestions, though…but a lot of the things don’t really apply to me since I don’t own things like that.
You just reminded me of a Facebook post… “My girlfriend asked me why I’m always armed around the house. ‘Decepticons,’ I said. My girlfriend laughed. I laughed. The toaster laughed. I shot the toaster. It was a good time.”
This is a complete wild guess, but - since you ONLY hear it in bed - could it be coming from literally right beside you? In other words, a twinge of the bed springs? Mine occasionally make a noise that sounds like one ring of the phone (a short ‘twirp’).