Mystery Noise

[echokilo]

Sensible answers only please: All weekend I have been hearing an odd noise in my bungalow. It's a very faint "bing bong" like the noise you hear on an aircraft or just before a PA announcement - but very quiet. It's clearer in some rooms than other and i can't hear it outside. I have checked everything electrical i can think of and have found nothing - driving me crackers!! Any ideas???

[Barmaid]

Have you left a phone off the hook anywhere?

[Ethel]

Batteries running down in something? Phone, smoke alarm, satnav....

[squarebear]

Do you have a smoke alarm? Ours does something similar when the battery is low.

[Gabbyfry91]

do u have a doorbell if so it could be on the blink?
do u have nieghbours if so blame them!

[tiggerblue10]

My smoke alarms make noises when the batteries are running out.

[snagged]

Kids toy in a cupboard?

[squarebear]

Kids in a cupboard? ;-)

[echokilo]

All wonderful suggestion but:
no kids here (only dogs)
not satnav or door bell
not the smoke alarms either - have checked them all.
do have neighbours - but can't blame them unfortuantely as am detached (the house not the relationship with the neighbours!!)
Thought of the phone off the hook, but that's more of a siren but have checked both and replaced them on base units and the noise continues. Aarrrghhhh!!!!

Please don't suggest it's in my head (someone else has heard it too) but any further suggestions would be appreciated!!

[y-cymro]

I had a very faint beeping noise in my house - took me ages to work it out - not a bing-bong noise - just a quiet beeping.

It was the charger for my mobile phone, which i could hear clearly when the house was quiet at night.

[ethandron]

your mobile phone alerting you to a missed call/text?

[echokilo]

Thanks both but no .... it's not a charger and it's not a phone beeping. Really very quiet - one of those noises you can barely hear but once you tune in it seems to become clearer.

[Postdog]

I was gonna say mobile too - I had this a few months back (different noise) and it took me ages to realise my phone was on, in a coat pocket, and I had a message.

The bing bong bit does make it sound like an alert of some kind

[starrystarry]

Try counting the gap between the beeps. If it's the same amount of time every time, you'll know it's something automated.

I can only suggest you cut out any other noise in the house and try to follow the sound. Mind you, if there's a long gap between beeps it could be a while!

[maviscoull]

its not from something up in your loft is it ?

[Eve]

Where in the house can you hear it the best?

Can you follow the sound and see where it's strongest and shee if you can hear it from outside?

[Eve]

We're brainstorming here trying to think :)

Could someone have hid something as a joke?

Could one of the dogs have swallowed something that beeps?

Fridges can make funny noises.

Friend came up with a broke video recorder.

A key fob or such with a battery in like ones you open a garage with or battery powered alarm clock.

House alarm on the blink?

An alarm clock gone wrong.

A radio or something like that down very low.

Have you had kids round who could have left something like a tamagotchi or beeping thing or something that could have slipped out of a handbag.

Something on a boiler or meter?

[bednobs]

car fob battery running out?

[Eve]

Laptop makes beeping noises when running out of battery or overheating, could it be a computer/blackberry/games console or other electrical overheating.

How long have you been there, could it be something stored away or left?

Does anyone have a hearing aid or similar medical device?

Some things like straightners can have warning systems if left on too long.

Ps... you're not alone..

http://ask.metafilter.com/26636/What-the-hell- is-causing-that-beeping

http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2004/09/13/t hings-that-go-beep-in-the-night/

http://boards.ign.com/dvd_home_theater_board/b 5043/164115330/r164407965/

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid =20080217101235AAxxAkt

http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/advice/t-58332.ht ml

[echokilo]

You are all marvellous - (so glad I am being taken seriously - thought you might all say I was going mad!!!)

Can hear it best in dining room and bathroon and does sound like it comes from the loft (it's a bungalow, so has huge roof void) Can't hear it outside at all.

Like the car fob battery running down - never had this happen before but suppose it could be that.

Have checked loft and can't find anything there. Bizarrely it stopped for a while earlier, then came back, then we had a huge storm and now the storms gone it's still there!!!

Perhaps I will never find it - and if it's some battery thing somewhere presumably it will run out eventually and it will still be a mystery!