# What is beeping in my bedroom? Surge protector? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964 "2014-11-18T15:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/21 "2014-11-18T18:48:55Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > This doesn’t really have anything to do with my question or the topic, but… > > 1. I don’t ever need to be up at a certain time. > 2. I don’t care what time it is when I wake up. Not really topic related, but I was just curious. Thought you might say cell phone or something. I’ve just never heard of anyone having ONLY what you describe in a room - no clothing, no books, no jewelry, no papers or anything. do the fans have electronic switches or manual? ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/22 "2014-11-18T18:50:09Z")
Disconnect the surge protector and unplug everything. Then… listen, reconnect your stuff one at a time until you find it. Shouldn’t be that hard. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/23 "2014-11-18T22:22:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Another thought … > > 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 had a watch i didn’t use much in a drawer. it had a mode where it beeped on the hour (a mode i never used in real life). it was doing that and i heard it every so often. drove me nuts until i found it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/24 "2014-11-18T22:31:27Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > 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. Are you sure? You could have been dreaming you were awake, and hallucinations right around sleeping/waking make you believe anything. I thought I was awake the other day and would have sworn someone said “Gwen” from behind me. And there’s no one there. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/25 "2014-11-18T22:44:58Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Disconnect the surge protector and unplug everything. Then… listen, reconnect your stuff one at a time until you find it. Shouldn’t be that hard. Well, that would be my approach, too. Except that it’s only happened “five or six times in two years,” so there could be a lot of waiting involved. Personally, I would just get an extension cord or whatnot and move the surge protector to the right of where I’m sleeping (as the OP states he always hears it to the left) if I can’t find anything definitive about that model of surge protector beeping from the internet. But the surge protector is a reasonable guess at this point. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/26 "2014-11-18T22:54:10Z")
let’s not discount brain issues. i’ve heard of people hearing of feeling (silent mode) their cell phone when they are definitely without the device. your brain may fake a sensation on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/27 "2014-11-18T22:55:31Z")
Have you checked under the bed? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/28 "2014-11-18T22:59:17Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > l > i’ve heard of people hearing of feeling (silent mode) their cell phone when they are definitely without the device. Yep, that sort of ghost ringing happens to me _all_ the time, especially since I never have my phone on audible ring mode, so I expect vibrating rings. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/29 "2014-11-18T23:00:10Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > 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_. Not necessarily. If the sound is echoing off a wall or piece of furniture, it can sound like it’s coming from a completely different direction from where it actually is. Even - no, not just even - especially if your hearing is very good. I’ve been in acoustically designed rooms where someone behind you and clear across a large oval shaped room sounded like an invisible person right in front of your nose. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/30 "2014-11-18T23:05:52Z")
Do you have a smartphone? When an Amber Alert is generated and I don’t address it right away, the phone will beep periodically until the alert is addressed by me and disabled. There have been a couple of times I’ve heard an slow, incessant beeping in the middle of the night, only to find an Amber Alert was issued. And with my phone downstairs I would periodically fainly hear the beep. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/31 "2014-11-18T23:21:44Z")
Is there a room above your bedroom? Storage space? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/32 "2014-11-19T00:08:11Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Do you have a smartphone? > > When an Amber Alert is generated and I don’t address it right away, the phone will beep periodically until the alert is addressed by me and disabled. There have been a couple of times I’ve heard an slow, incessant beeping in the middle of the night, only to find an Amber Alert was issued. And with my phone downstairs I would periodically fainly hear the beep. That happens to me with any voice mail on my cell phone. If I get one, my phone will beep once in a great while. As **Doug K.** mentioned, even though it sounds like it’s coming from one particular location, it might not be. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/33 "2014-11-19T00:22:33Z")
I don’t own any kind of cell or mobile phone. I only have one landline, and that’s in the living room. I don’t have an “under the bed”, my mattress is directly on the floor. No boxspring or legs. I’m 100 percent sure I didn’t dream it or imagine it. I’m 100 percent sure it’s in my bedroom and not in the walls, outside, or from anywhere else. I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s the Power Strip/Surge Protector. If you google “Surge Protector” and “beeping”, you get a lot of “Why is my surge protector beeping”. So…in my mind, if I’m hearing a beeping, and it’s coming from an area where I have a surge protector, and it’s possible for surge protectors to beep…it just seems to me like that’s probably it, which is why I posted earlier that it’s probably more of a “Why is my surge protector beeping?” rather than a “What is beeping?” Yeah, I could just unplug it and see if it stops, but considering the time between beeps, I’m not sure it would help figure if that was it. But anyway, it doesn’t really matter too much, because it doesn’t bother me. I was just curious about it and wondered why it would beep at all. From what I’ve found online via Google, I’m going to just assume it’s due to power spikes or drops…which I’ve read (on a few sites) can make it beep (although, not the type of beeping I’m hearing). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/34 "2014-11-19T00:36:57Z")
Why not disconnect the surge protector and open it up? Even if you know nothing about consumer electronics, just post a picture of the guts and people here will be able to tell if there’s a device to emit sound in it. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/35 "2014-11-19T02:39:34Z")
Can you either post a picture of the surge protector, or give us the model information? Most of the time when people mention a surge protector, it’s a power strip of some sort. I’ve never seen one of them that beeps. The similar thing that beeps is normally called an uninteruptable power supply. Both can provide extra electrical outlets. One (the one that normally beeps) has a battery inline to allow for power when there is no wall power (outage or unplugged). If you have the second one - the UPS - then it may be beeping because it senses a momentary glitch in the power to the apartment. The beep is a notification that you are on battery power. Then it shuts off, because it was just a glitch. This can be simulated, as mentioned above, by unplugging it from the wall briefly. If it beeps, then you have your answer. (While it’s unplugged…do your fans still work?) ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/36 "2014-11-19T03:01:38Z")
I had a similar problem, in that when I turned the lights on in my bedroom something would set off a series of beeps. This happened once or twice a day tops. By a process of elimination I became convinced it was the surge protector. It had a tv, bluray player, old dvd player and a vcr plugged in. I disconnected the latter two - and the beeping stopped. I can’t be 100% sure, and I couldn’t find a manual for that model to see under what circumstances it might beep. But I can’t see how it could be anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/37 "2014-11-19T03:40:11Z")
Whole bunches of modern electronic devices go beep in the night. And a great many of them use some kind of beep generator that produces a square wave sound instead of a smooth sine wave. It’s a characteristic of square wave sounds that your ears can’t figure out which direction they are coming from. Your ears detect the direction of a sound by taking note of the phase shift between the left ear and the right ear. That doesn’t work with square waves. One result is that a loud beep coming from some distance away might well sound like a faint beep that is originating right there in the room near you. So, just another possibility among all those that have been already mentioned: It’s actually a louder beep coming from outside somewhere that you hear as a fainter beep that sounds nearby. An anecdote: I worked on a project for a few years that involved training dolphins, and heard this story from a time before I started there: They used some kind of a beeper to train dolphins to approach various objects in their pool. The plan was: First, train the dolphin to approach the beeper whenever they hear it. Then, put the beeper near some other object, and beep, and the dolphin will approach that objects. Then, train the dolphin to approach the object on some particular cue without the beeper. (It’s a rather standard animal training technique called “target training”; using a beeper is just a variation on that.) Well, it didn’t work at first. The dolphins wouldn’t approach the beeper. They just swam wildly around instead. It was finally figured out that the beepers were producing a square wave beep, and the dolphins couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/38 "2014-11-19T04:01:04Z")
The United Kingdom recently changed the backup beeping signal for big commercial vehicles. They changed from the high frequency beep to a longer pulsing buzzing noise. They did this for a few reasons. One it is easier to locate a longer broad frequency pulse than a short high frequency beep. Two the high frequency beeps carry farther to where people are just irritated by the noise but not so near that they need to avoid the trucks. The point being that short beeps are really hard to figure out where they are coming from. So I sympathize with the OP it is really hard to figure out the source of an infrequent beep. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/39 "2014-11-19T06:24:38Z")
Since this is an “everybody gets a shot” thread: Move the pillow and covers. put your head where your feet are now. Does the sound still come from the left? If it is something physical, it will be on your right. If your ears/otic nerve are having some fun with your mind, it will come from your left. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/40 "2014-11-19T08:40:21Z")
For $2.49, you can get a 6-outlet multi-tap connecter to replace your UPS/surge protecter/power strip. (Home Depot has [this one](http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-6-Outlet-Adapter-R52-6ADPT-00W/100356859?N=5yc1vZc4o9).) That’s a lot cheaper & easier than spending any more time worrying & posting about this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964.md?page=3)