We are hearing a faint, high-pitched vibration noise coming from somewhere in our kitchen or adjacent keeping room. Noticed it in the last 24 hours. Constant.

Sounds like vibration from a loose can ceiling light, but it's not that. Kitchen has a bedroom above it and the keeping room has a vaulted A ceiling with roofing, so it's not coming from the attic. Shut off the HVAC and then flipped every breaker in the house, but the noise persists.

Any thoughts on what it might be?

We had something similar. Was a pin hole sized water leak in a supply line under our house hitting the adjacent cast iron sewer pipe for the kitchen sink. Higher pitched hissing noise.

Do you have whirlybird roof vents?

No on the whirlybirds, just passive ridgeline vents.

Don't think it is water supply leak either. We have a basement and water supply lines to that area of the house are in an unfinished area with no evidence of any leaks.

We did have a home inspector in the house recently. Given that we are empty nesters and don't use a lot of the house regularly, I'm wondering if he tested something, opened a water/gas valve somewhere that didn't get fully seated, etc.
Very puzzling.

Do you have a tankless water heater?

jt2hunt said:

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Do you have a tankless water heater?

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Nope. 7 yr old traditional tank unit in perfect working order.

Some additional details. The noise is faint and confined - can't hear it in the kitchen pantry, laundry room off the kitchen, unfinished portion of the basement directly below the kitchen & keeping room, or anywhere in the attic. Also, there is a gas fireplace that is never used in the keeping room, although it does not seem like the noise is coming from there and no smell of gas.

It's either electrical or plumbing related.

I know you turned off every breaker, but I would kill the MAIN and see what happens.

Then I would do the same with the water at the road or whatever it takes to shut off the water and open a faucet or hose bib to relieve pressure.

It's gotta be one of those unless you're house is responding to low frequency or infrasound.

Similar problem for me was transformer on oven/range

VAXMaster said:

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I've had to track down similar noises in the past, once it was the doorbell transformer that had started buzzing, another time it was an old battery powered toothbrush that had permanently turned itself on. Good luck!

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Been there. It was a couple of days of unexplainable annoyance in the living room area, then figured it out once I crawled into the attic.

actually had a strange noise that was tracked to not only the doorbell transformer but the interior doorbell itself. Other than that - it could be air something moving through attic blowing a piece of paper or something at the right vibration frequency, like loose paper material from something

30 years of operating machinery, impacts, and hunting has cured me of some of the "what is that annoying noise?" Problems. I hear high pitched ringing and humming 24/7/365 now. Could be real, could be in my head, but I don't worry either way. Problem solved!

You can try that?

BrazosDog02 said:

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It's either electrical or plumbing related.

I know you turned off every breaker, but I would kill the MAIN and see what happens.

Then I would do the same with the water at the road or whatever it takes to shut off the water and open a faucet or hose bib to relieve pressure.

It's gotta be one of those unless you're house is responding to low frequency or infrasound.

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This is sound troubleshooting. Even checking things off the list that are not the problem help gets you closer.

Hopefully thi gets things narrowed down to a a function or system - electrical - plumbing HVAC etc.

If you have access to a stethoscope - make a redneck one from a pipe of long screwdriver or get a Harbor Freight mechanics Stethoscope, it may help. A real stethoscope may let you hear sounds better to narrow in on them.
https://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-63691.html

Update...
Shut off the water to the house and opened several faucets to relieve pressure. Noise persists.

Flipped the main electrical breaker on the exterior to shut off power to the entire house. Noise persists.

Pull out the kitchen refrigerator from the built-in cabinet and unplug for 5 min. Plug back in, push the ice/water dispenser on the front. Noise is gone.

Although my wife says she now hears it in the garage (and previously didn't) where there is a second refrigerator.

Glad it is gone, but the engineer in me wonders what phenomenon caused it.

Thanks everyone for your input!

I wonder if your refrigerator damper is going bad. It controls how much cold air is in the freezer and refrigerator compartments. Maybe when you pressed the ice dispenser it relieved pressure and air stopped flowing through the damper. Might measure the temperature in both compartments to see if it is working properly. It could just be noisy.