How to check for unwanted electrical noise when buying a house?

Hi everyone -

Not sure if this has been covered here before but I did a search and couldn't find anything. Apologies in advance if it's been discussed or it doesn't belong here.

I have a very limited electrical knowledge, but I have read some posts where people mention that they have a lot of hum/buzzing using their audio equipment and attribute it to something with the wiring in/around the house and have no choice but to live with it.

I'm shopping for a home and will be having a housing inspection if an offer goes under contract. My question is - is there any way to test if there would be electrical noise interference with certain audio gear? I have a Rega turntable and various vintage tube amplifiers. I also play guitar and would like to do some home recording. Short of actually setting up some of this gear and testing out (which is likely not feasible), is there anything to look for in the inspection report that might indicate this being an issue? Is there something I should specifically ask the inspector about? Are there general rules of thumb such as houses built before a certain year are more prone to these problems, or houses near large utility power lines? Is there a simple way I can test this? I don't have the technical vocabulary or understanding to know what to ask.

Let me know what you think. I'm sure the odds of there being a problem are slim, and it most likely won't make or break a sale, but I'd like to know in advance if electrical noise/interference/wiring issues would interfere with my gear.

 

When I was in the field back in the 80's and 90's whenever power issues were suspected we used a Dranetz meter
for a week or so to monitor the power. It spit out a printout on a roll of paper like a POS cash register with all it's findings. It had a battery backup so it continued to work during a brown out or black out. Maybe you can rent something like that.

 

If it is that much of a worry for you then surely you will get some power conditioning equipment regardless of your pre-purchase investigation ?

 

Very good question. I hope the experts here can offer you some good advice. Alas, I’m no expert and not aware of such measuring devices, but will suggest that if the house isn’t very old you could always hire an electrician to run a dedicated circuit to the room you use for audio. Might require some minor drywall repair but will be money well spent.

 

That's a great point - something I am considering for sure. I guess what I am most wondering is if there are issues that a power conditioner won't solve. Again, I'm fairly lost when it comes to this kind of stuff, so I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question!

 

I think it’s a good question too, and don’t have much advice, other than I’ll be curious to hear others opinions. I will say, check to see if the house you’re considering has 200 amp service to it. Mine has only 100 amp, and certain things will cause the circuit breaker to trip. I have mostly modern circuit breakers but there’s 4 that use the old style bus breakers where you have to twist them out and replace the piece. A real PITA especially in the dark. It will cost me $2-3k to update it, although I’ll likely move first. Not sure if that has any impact on the noise you hear, probably not, but it can’t help.

 

If it doesn't have one of these in the yard, you're out of luck.

 

The only thing that I can think of would be to get a portable AM radio and walk around the house passing the radio near all the A/C outlets. If I started hearing buzzing near any of them, I'd be suspicious of RF radiation. Or, I could be full of it......BS, not radiation! ;-)

 

I bought one of these to let me know how much noise is on my AC lines.

Power Line Meter - AlphaLab, Inc.

That being said, I really like this. I plugged the tool into it and it's very quiet.

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-I...3250315&sprefix=trip+lite+isol,aps,194&sr=8-3

 

I sincerely hope that if you find the house of your dreams, you won't let electrical noise interference issues (which I imagine are addressable) be the dealbreaker.

 

Hahahaha... don’t worry, I won’t!