VERY Noisy Powerline Tower -Should I Report it?
 

We live in a neighborhood that is close to the high tension lines that run along the east side of TV. One of the towers has been making quite a racket and I'm wondering if it should be reported to the power company.

Please note that this is NOT the crackling/buzzing you hear about which is exacerbated by rain or high humidity. This is a metallic sound which ranges from a loud vibration to an equally loud grinding sound. There is no pattern to it except that it seems worse at night--but it isn't every night and it won't occur all night.

Weather conditions like wind don't make it worse which leads me to believe that it could be related to how much "juice" is running down the wires.
Just wondering if any of you engineers out there have any theories on what's going on? I can't find any explanation on the Internet.

Tonight it's clear, no wind and the thing is absolutely rocking and rolling! I don't imagine that this is normal? If you think that the power company should be contacted, does anyone know who owns these high tension lines & towers? Thank you in advance for your help with this! :shrug:

Sure, it can't hurt.

I, too, have heard similar sounds from the towers/lines. First I thought it was someone who had dropped a metal skid on the ground... but we are not near any such commercial operation. What I now think it is... is the thermal contraction/expansion of the power lines due to heating of sun in day and cooling at night. The power lines have to "grow" in the heat and "contract" during cooling and this causes the lines to slide over the cable guides installed to facilitate that movement. Some of this movement gets noisy.

I was an electric lineman for 40 years. The buzzing will stop as soon after the fog lift and air becomes dryer. There is 345000 volts going through the tower line.

When we lived in upstate NY we had power lines out back of the house. One day we were sitting on our front porch when the was a loud explosion it knocked the pictures off the wall.I checked the water heater but that was ok.I couldn't find the problem.Soon after a NYSEG truck came and checked the lines a insulator had gotten moisture in it and the line went to ground 345k volts make a huge explosion.

Thank you for clearing this up. You smart man from Bryan, OHIO. We call Ohio the motherland in our house. ;)

The OP stated: "Tonight it's clear, no wind and the thing is absolutely rocking and rolling!"

I walk my dog nightly along a multimodal / recreational trail that is under / next to a long series of these towers. I have found that they are the most vocal on clear, cool/cold, low humidity nights.

Thermal contraction/expansion makes sense. Warm sun on the tower all day and then cooler air hits it at night. But I wonder why this particular tower reacts this way versus the other towers that are quiet? It really is very noisy. We're probably 1/4 mile away and it is still hard to ignore!

Buzzing and crackling I can handle! But this is more of a metallic sound--almost like the noise that a circular saw makes! Very metallic sounding.

As a former utility engineer, I would report it along with details as to when it is worse, and let the professionals take a look at it.

This should have been the first thing done!

Google. Living under high tension lines