Why do you think that it was "electrical" and what were the weather conditions at the time?

 

Weather: very light, lake-effect snow. No wind.

The reason I think electrical is that I can't figure any other logical thing that would make a loud, hollow sound. It really sounded a lot like when a light bulb burns out with gusto. I've run a bunch of possibilities through my head.

The area where it occurred is carpet and bed. All soft, quiet material, excluding a side table. Nothing fell off (to my knowledge) I tried to recreate the sound with the few things and couldn't get close.

Everyone is sure it occurred in the room (on a 2nd floor). I ran the possibility that something smacked into our siding outside. I can imagine throwing a rock off of our siding might mimic the sound, but a single rock-throw from a hooligan at 6:30 a.m., in the dark, in the cold and snow, in an isolated area, is highly unlikely. (and nothing was laying on our deck) And I know what our siding popping and shifting with the temperature sounds like and it's not that loud.

Believe me. I'm an overthinker so I've stared at the area and tried to think of what it could be. (maybe a tiny meteorite hit our siding...see. Overthinker.)

 

I'm with Frodo. It may not have been electrical. The only way that it might have been the laptop is if the laptop is set on a table cloth, or something else that would prevent it from breathing. The vent is on the bottom.

 

I'm pretty sure the fan in my old laptop is packed with lint and I need to take it apart and clean it out. It will get hot every now and then but I just fired it up and it was completely cool when this happened. The temp was the first thing I checked. I have a set-up where there's extra air circulation under our laptops. (the other laptop is brand new and has excessive ventilation because it was meant to be used as a gaming laptop so it doesn't even slightly warm up)

 

It could have been the surge protector blowing off a surge.

 

Is that a thing? Aren't the surge protectors a 'one and done' kind of thing? I thought if something blew, it was toast. (or would trip/shut off, etc.) I never had to reset anything. My green light that says 'Protected' is still on. Maybe I'll read about my surge protector.

 

I never said to reset it. It is true that many of them are one and done. But when they go, they can make a loud pop as the MOV blows.

If the green light is still on then I think it is good.

 

I appreciate the responses. It makes me feel a little better that I won't return to a house on fire.

 

How old is your house? Maybe a floor joist drying out and checking. Your weight on that particular spot might have been the final straw before it snapped.

 

House was built in 1976. Nothing seemed to reverberate in the structure. It really seemed to be clean, crisp 'pop' within the actual room space.

 

squirrels, it's always those dang squirrels. probably ate your floor joist. or maybe termites, or ants. or nothing.

my house makes some funky pops and squeaks every once in awhile due to temp. changes, wind, etc. could just be something shifting causing a pop.

 

We have zero mammal pests within a few acres of our house because we have three, what can only be described, as 'murder cats.' They each kill 3-6 things per day, all day every day, and those are only what we see. They are such predators that two of them catch full-sized rabbits, one tries to catch Canada geese and goes in water to catch things, once bringing home over a foot-long bass.

Maybe it's stink bugs. We've got plenty of those in the walls.

 

Highly possible you heard a bird either hitting your siding or a window. Have you checked the perimeter for anything unusual? Nevermind. I see where you have cats. Carcass wouldn't have lasted too long.

 

As soon as I thought of the siding, I searched outside for any signs of something that had hit the house. I thought of a bird but it was still early for the birds to be up, but can't rule it out. (still dark out - they usually rise with the sun). Assuming a bird, as loud as it was, I'd think it would be stunned but the light snow coating on our deck (~1000 sq ft that spans the entire house) was still pristine and the cats were hunkered down in their houses when I fed them at 6:30.

When I mentioned the outdoor/house noise possibilities to my wife, she said "it definitely happened inside the room."

 

Chandler, not a bad guess at all. Birds fly into windows all the time.

 

I would describe that as more of a "thunk".

I have heard house framing "settling" sound like a fairly loud "crack". If nothing obvious is wrong electrically, my next suspicion would be a floor joist or ceiling framing making a small but sudden shift. Happens quite often.

 

I'm questioning the second floor and snow. Yesterday it snowed, then freezing rain then a rapid temperature drop. If conditions are right, the ice on the roof contracts and we get a pop, sometimes a boom depending on the amount of snow or ice up there. It doesn't rock the house or anything, but you will definitely hear it and unless you knew what it was, it's difficult to pinpoint the source.

 

Our snow had melted off with the few days of warm weather before a line of thunderstorms came through bringing normal cold behind it. We didn't get any sort of ice coating and the snow was a tiny, fractional amount. Immeasurably small and very light. Not even covering the grass, so any sort of snow weight or ice coating was non-existent, at the time.

We did have a large temp change, going from mid-50's to mid-20's over a couple day span. I feel like we've heard the majority of house pops and shifts and this still seemed different.

 

A few years back my mystery pop turned out to be a broken window. I guess it can happen under the right weather conditions. Settling was not the cause.


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I considered a window 'popping' into place. Sometimes they're not always closed completely and you'll randomly get a 'pop' when the latch suddenly clicks into place. That's always 'springy' sounding. This sound was still different than that.

 

Kent, I was also under the impression that birds wouldn't be flying during the night hours. Then one night around 1 AM, I was driving & a bird pooped on my windshield.

 

One of my co-workers heard a loud pop in his basement last month. After looking at all the equipment, he saw that his foundation had cracked. We think that is what caused the sound.

 

@KentStater Did you ever find out what happened here? I just had the very same thing happen here at my home. It sounded like a light bulb popping in the bedroom, but very loud. We can't find anything that might have caused this.

 

Curley Toes - instead of asking on a thread that is over 3 years old it would be better that you call in a licensed electrician to investigate. Popping of electrical anything is not good. Even popping that will trip a breaker - the breaker is tripping because something is not right in the Land of OZ and the breaker is doing its job.

Call an electrician.

 

Strange reply. Are replying to an old thread and calling an electrician mutually exclusive activities?

 

IMO it was the sound of a very thin wire strand short circuiting & being vaporized because 250A was passing thru it.

See "exploding wires".

It may come back with day/night temperature cycling because the gap left is very small.

 

I am very curious about this. Would the vaporized wire strand cause any insulation to melt, etc., or something else that I could see?

I just had a nearly identical experience to the OP this morning. Three of us heard it in the same room as where the pop occurred. Sounded like a light bulb or very loud balloon popping would sound from about 3 feet away, maybe 10x louder than a loud balloon. I took apart an outlet- no black marks, no exploded mice. Wire comes to the outlet inside metal conduit that is tight to the outlet box. No circuit breaker blew, no electrical smell, no flash, no smoke, no broken windows or bulbs or glass or anything. No broken foundation or plumbing. Sounded like it was out in the open air in the room with us and not muffled behind a wall or something. I am intrigued by the exploding wire strand theory. Would love to hear if anyone knows more, or if anything was resolved by the OP or another previous commenter that apparently had an identical experience.

 

Do you have a sump pump? Some times if the check valve slams shut it can make a loud noise.

 

Curley Toes - I think you received the wrong impression from my post.

Because of the type of problem this may be electrically and that it may be very important to have it resolved as soon as possible to prevent property damage or even personal injury I was just suggesting that you may want to start a new thread to grab member's attention of this issue you are having. The OP has not be on since Jan of 2018 and sometimes even myself I tend to ignore very old threads. I was just attempting to get you assistance as soon as possible.

Call an electrician was meant saying this type of issue may be in the need for immediate in person assistance from a licensed electrician..

 

Our wierd pop was more of a snap in a quiet late night, watching movies. We looked all over, kinda freaked out. I spot a little red piece of plastic under the kitchen table. Mr. Coffee pot had condensed enough steam under the red lens that it shorted out and had a little steam explosion. No burnt smell to help out.

 

We just had this exact scenario happen. Second floor. Livingroom. No one moving. No surge protector…..sounded like a loud clap or the bang of a firecracker. We have looked everywhere. Can’t figure it out at all. No snow around, wet and maybe 6degrees outside. Definately happened in the room. We are mind boggled. Sounded like a light blew up as well, but lights are all good.

 

My sister just described this scenario happening in the house exactly. 5x-10x louder than balloon popping. After several hours have passed, there's still ringing in her ears when she was almost 20 feet away from the general area she determined the noise originated. Giving all potentially relevant details so future experiences can look for correlation in hopes of positively identifying this. 1. 2nd warm day (60 degrees) after many months of cold days 2. Happened in 3rd floor (1st floor finished basement, 2nd floor main w kitchen and master, 3rd floor has 5 bedrooms) right above kitchen and main dining room. 3. Described that the noise came from beside the bed, carpeted floor, no electronics around, one outlet, offset down and to the left one foot from window. Room is hardly ever used, maybe slept in 10x a year by guests. 4. All lights and outlets work fine, no signs of electrical burns. 5. Had plumber come out and unclog major block to to septic tank just under a week prior to this happening. 6. Plumbing clear-out access is 2 stories directly below window described above, with lid still intact and sealed. 7. Carpeted bedrooms opens to hardwood flooring on this floor. 8. Not a high traffic area even if bedroom were occupied. 9. Area was clean and free of clutter, beside table with picture frame, vacuumed carpet within a month - no excess lint or dust present anywhere. 10. Window is closed and latched, and hasn't been open in many years. 11. House was built in 1992 and never had any electrical issues outside what would be considered ordinary maintenance. 12. House had 2 ground-source heating units, the second unit, which heats the 3rd and 4th floor, hadn't been ran in months up until about a week ago. 13. Next to the plumbing clear out is the electrical panel that the power guy comes and reads to determine our power bill. There is a big metal rod sticking out of the ground with a wire wrapped around it serving as a ground for something. Not sure what is relevant in this, but it scared the **** out of my sister and she is shook up, so I hope that this helps figure this phenomenon out. If you figure it out, let me know, please.

 

@mikeyh this thread dates back a while. It seems you have something you want to solve. It is always best to start your own thread and refer back to older ones if it helps. You may get better response that way. And use paragraphs.

 

And for a number list, just type your entries, highlight them, hover your cursor over the area shown below, click on List and then Ordered List in the pop-up and the site will number them for you.

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Hello, I just had a loud crack sound in my kitchen. The first time i heard this
, months ago out in the laundry room i thought someone had set off a stink bomb. Because the stench followed. But this is the second time in the same room, so i am thinking some bug. But always some stench & you said you did not smell anything.

 

@Stupidcrap it is always best that you start your own thread describing in detail what your problem is, and providing photos so we can see what you see.

 

I know this thread is old as hell, but I just had this happen in the middle of the night last night. It was a loud pop, similar in sound to a firecracker, so I figured something electrical has shorted out. It had woken me up from a deep sleep, so I sleepily assumed the heated pet bed was too blame, since I'd had it running pretty consistently for a month. I unplugged it and went back to sleep.

Now I'm investigating the pet bed and outlet, and see nothing amiss. I also checked the other outlets and lightswitches in the room, as well as all light bulbs. Nothing broken or damaged, and the breaker wasn't tripped. I cautiously have the pet bed plugged back in, but I might unplug it before I go to sleep.

Similarly to OP, it happened while it was still dark outside, on a snowy night. The temperature outside is probably in the 20's, and the temperature inside is mid-60's. Even if no one has definitive answers, I'm grateful for this thread - it makes me feel less like there's a time bomb in here. I'll come back and let you all know if the loud pop ever happens again.