# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/41 "2014-11-19T14:37:50Z")
I will add one additional possibility : fans can sometimes squeak. It’s almost indistinguishable from some kinds of electronic beeps. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/42 "2014-11-19T15:22:45Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > … 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 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. Similar anecdote. … Back in the late 1980s I worked in an open-plan office with no partitions. There were 6 desks in a 20x30’ room with 6 old-fashioned Ma Bell multi-line rotary dial phones with mechanical ringers. One fine day they replaced the ancient electromechanical phone switch system with Centrex and the desk sets with then-modern single line desk sets whose ringing sound was an electronic beeping. It was flat impossible to tell whose phone was ringing. Often you couldn’t even tell the difference between _yours_ vs. _somebody else’s_ unless you stuck your ear next to your instrument. After some reprogramming we managed to get distinctive ringers or rings on most of them. But it was hella vexatious until we did. Bottom line: A lot of electronic sounds simply cannot reliably be located in space by healthy human hearing. ---
**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 19, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/43 "2014-11-19T15:35:24Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Bottom line: A lot of electronic sounds simply cannot reliably be located in space by healthy human hearing. I had the same deal trying to figure out this intermittent beeping for three days in my house. There was some vague regularity to it, but I couldn’t quite figure out the interval. I was convinced it was coming from my house. I’d stand in all my rooms, waiting for that infernal beep, only to think it’s coming from another room. Then I’d go to another room, and it would sound like it was coming from the room I last was in. It was driving me absolutely batty. One day, I finally figured it out. It was coming from a house two doors down (it was in the summer, windows open), and seemed to be a smoke alarm “battery low” beep from some neighbors who were out of town. Sanity restored. ---
**Author:** ![westom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@westom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/westom)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/44 "2014-11-19T15:56:31Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I’m 99.9 percent sure it’s the Power Strip/Surge Protector. If it is a surge protector, then it does not have batteries and does not have a beeper. Most assume a surge protector and a UPS are same. They are clearly and intentionally misinformed by advertising that will say anything to increase sales and profits. Clearly a protector and UPS are completely different; do completely different functions. If what you have (called a surge protector) is really a UPS, then fans must not be powered by it. A UPS outputs ‘dirty’ power that is ideal for all electronics. And can be potentially harmful to motorized appliances. A failing smoke detector will beep once rarely - with or without new batteries. Over many months or years, beeping will occur more often. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/45 "2014-11-19T17:08:57Z")
I hear faint beeps every so often while I’m lying in bed. I always assume they are someone’s somethingorother beeping outside. I don’t live in an apartment, but in detached house on a half-acre plot, surrounded by the same. Not all sounds travel but something at beep frequency might make it to me. Just because you have windows shut doesn’t mean you can’t hear outside noises. How it’s getting to be next to you, I don’t know. But when everything is silent (presumably that’s the case when you’re lying in bed?)…you can hear beeps from outside. Or at least I can. ---
**Author:** ![Lungfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@Lungfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lungfish)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/46 "2014-11-19T18:36:26Z")
Now and again I can hear a tock, tock, tock sound in my bedroom at night. It lasts a few seconds each time and sounds mechanical. I don’t any wind-up clocks and my battery powered watch makes a tick sound every second. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/47 "2014-11-20T01:18:32Z")
> [@Lungfish](#): > > Now and again I can hear a tock, tock, tock sound in my bedroom at night. It lasts a few seconds each time and sounds mechanical. I don’t any wind-up clocks and my battery powered watch makes a tick sound every second. This could just be your house flexing. During the day, your house and especially attic heat up, then cool down overnight. That causes stresses in the wood framing, and can cause those ticks and tocks as the parts move tiny amounts. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/48 "2014-11-20T01:34:55Z")
> [@Lungfish](#): > > Now and again I can hear a tock, tock, tock sound in my bedroom at night. It lasts a few seconds each time and sounds mechanical. I don’t any wind-up clocks and my battery powered watch makes a tick sound every second. > [@ZenBeam](#): > > This could just be your house flexing. During the day, your house and especially attic heat up, then cool down overnight. That causes stresses in the wood framing, and can cause those ticks and tocks as the parts move tiny amounts. also heating/cooling system and plumbing can make these noises. heating causes expansion which rubs against house and clamps/supports. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/49 "2014-11-20T02:22:56Z")
Hey - nobody’s suggest mice? They squeak! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/51 "2023-03-08T16:20:17Z")
@Idle_Thoughts - I realize this thread if 8 1/2 years old, and was probably revived by a bot/spammer, but did you ever determine if the surge protector or something else was the culprit of the beeping? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964/52 "2023-03-08T18:11:17Z")
I just want to know how he thought it could possibly be the surge protector when they don’t even have anything in them that _could_ beep. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-beeping-in-my-bedroom-surge-protector/704964.md?page=2)