Can the Sound of Central Heating Cause Hearing Loss or Make Tinnitus Worse?

[SB93]

I had to sleep with the heat on last night because it was extremely cold. It makes noise but not anything that I would consider overly loud.

I woke up this morning and my tinnitus is much worse - loud hissing in both ears and more tones. I'm terrified that the central heating unit has damaged my hearing from kicking on and off all night. I haven't had an issue with it until now.

Does anyone know if central heating system units can damage the ears and cause hearing loss or make tinnitus worse?

 

[Muggumbo]

You can run a decibel app and see how loud it is, but generally they shouldn't be loud enough to cause damage. The tones it's emitting may be causing your tinnitus to react. Mine reacted to fans, A/C vents, space heaters, etc. for like 2 months.

 

[BrOKeN_1]

My best guess is the pressure change in the house when the unit is running is causing a temporary spike. This is speculation of course.

 

[Jupiterman]

I think you have reactive tinnitus.

Sounds don't need to be loud to react with your tinnitus. Also these (new) sounds can stick in your head for a (long) while.

Also, continuous sounds are the worst for reactive tinnitus, like that of central heating.

 

[object16]

You're reacting to very low inaudible frequency from that circulation of air through the ducts. Obviously there is something real, and a dB meter won't measure it, it's in the dBZ range unfortunately.

I've got the same kind of disease, my house has electric baseboard heat fortunately, you may need a plug in electrical heater and electric blankets. I get the same if there is a truck with modified exhaust outside, which fortunately is quite rare, otherwise they'd have done my autopsy ages ago (and found "nothing"). Otherwise known as HVAC noise. Very well known.