Last night, I awoke at around 2am, needing to go to the bathroom. As is my standard approach, all lights were off, and left off (I find this gloom technique helps get me back to sleep).
In the bathroom, I was standing washing my hands, and I could hear a distinct truly-weird buzzing/whining sound. It seemed to be from everywhere, and it sounded to be possibly electronic in nature....but I could not think what it was possibly coming from.
I kept moving about the place in the bathroom, in the safe twilight from the window, doing that instinctive action that most animals do when they're trying to identify a strange sound (tip your head, open your mouth and waggle your ears....or move about, slightly).
The noise was driving me insane. I could not figure-out where the hell it was coming from. I began to think of fringe theories, such as pressurised hot water or steam (impossible in our house), some abandoned electronic device in the attic (hugely unlikely).
I could not resist the conclusion that the sound seemed somehow to be localised, as if it were coming from a point in mid-air, as I tried fruitlessly to locate its source. At this point I decided that I was now mildly-spooked, and that turning on the light (hence really waking me up) no longer mattered.
So I pulled the lightswitch cord, click...and the sound immediately disappeared. Plus, no light was emitted from the energy-saving overhead lightbulb and shade, above.
And then I realised what had been going on. I went into a darkened bathroom, within which the overhead light had been turned-on by someone previously that night, who'd found the lightbulb had died, so that person had left the lightswitch ON. And the low-energy lightbulb had died, upon doing which it was giving our a minor-but-unmissable inductive whistle, either forever, or until I turned it off, or until it burned our house down.
I have a much-more extensive rant to impart later, on the subject of modern-day low-energy lights. This further epistle will appear soon. But meantime....the best place for low-energy lightbulbs is the bin.
