In Search of the Silent Tone, A Smart Power Mystery Story, Day 4, House Noises

In the last smart power meter post a number of silent tone sources were listed. Some other suspected sources include natural gas pipes, water pipes, power line harmonics, seismic activity, structural cohesiveness  or a combination of these.

Successfully eliminating silent tones often requires a well-thought out plan. This plan will often include a list of all possible silent tone sources and a list of standard home noise sources.  A comprehensive list of home noise sources as listed at joncakes.com. There the post, "Noises, sounds that tell you what is wrong with your house" reveals some startling noises that could just help you isolate structural problems that may contribute to silent tone amplification.

In Search of the Silent Tone - A Smart Power Mystery Story, Day 1

Today we are the wisegeek in search of the silent tone. The silent tone, a barely audible continual low frequency, base-like tone, has been associated  with  the mass deployment of smart power meters. However, as the wise geek points out, the silent tone is nothing new and has been investigated before. According to the wise geek, the source of the ever-imposing sound has been directly linked to natural and man-made structures, including volcanoes, pipe lines and towers. According to the wise geek "in Kokomo, India, the sound was traced to a cooling tower emitting a 36 Hz tone and an air compressor intake emitting a 10 Hz tone, and on the Big Island of Hawaii, where a tone was attributed to known volcanic activity."

As the wisegeek explains, there are other suspected silent tone sources. However, complicating the location of a silent tone source are the time, expense and technology required to locate them.