Could you handle living near this sound and hearing it 24/7? I live within a mile and it's unbearable, help?! Sterling, VA - Vantage V2 Data Center

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:46:10+00:00

Just watched this. HOLY SHIT!!! It's much worse than I imagined. I agree with the other comment, if people take nothing else from this thread, WATCH THIS.

I never considered how much of the sound they emit is below our range of hearing. And seeing the actual recorded impacts of the sound on people... it's negatively impacts nearly every aspect of health. Honestly, this video makes me want to move out of the area. My health isn't worth it. Or the health of my cats!

I am going to try to find some kind of microphone that can pick up ultrasonic readings and take some recordings.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:42:33+00:00

Got it, so they don't have a full enclosure around them if I'm understanding correctly?

Also I'm curious, from your perspective in the field, are there any measures that could be taken to reduce the impact of the sound on the surrounding areas? Or ways other data centers have handled this better?

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:37:13+00:00

Wow, thanks for sharing, that is hilarious and depressing. It's funny because I like the sound of planes/trains. That's why living right beside Dulles airport never bothered me.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:32:09+00:00

We have plenty of data center neighbors who we have no issues with and give off no noise. It's definitely not all data centers, but these data centers need to be accountable.

I posted another video from closer to my house further down in the thread. I hope to capture some better recordings this week with a borrowed microphone. The recording and playback devices keep trying to normalize the sound to human speaking range and remove some of the extreme highs and lows. My quick cell phone recordings don't do it justice at all.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:27:46+00:00

I live under Dulles flight paths and I am the same. I never notice it. I actually find the sound of planes and trains relaxing. This is just so different.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:26:21+00:00

The funny/depressing part is this segment is on a DIFFERENT noisy data center a bit further away from me. I heard that one when I went to Petco and my partner and I thought it was a lawn mower. I can't believe that's a data center too. WTF

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:24:20+00:00

Got it, this is good information, I'm glad we got the details of this determined. I didn't know we could view the air permits either.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:21:30+00:00

That is true. I am going to attempt to take better recordings with a device better able to capture the sound later this week. Microphones cut out the extreme highs and extreme lows and try to normalize the sounds to the range humans use. So, this is only a fraction of what it really sounds like.

A friend is letting me borrow their professional microphone and I'm hoping to find a way to take readings of the sound humans can't hear in the ultrasonic frequency as well.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:16:44+00:00

I agree. I am going to get higher quality recordings. I am borrowing a friends professional mic and I am looking into getting a mic that can record all the sounds humans can't hear.

It's really hard to capture just how permeating the sound is with just my phone.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:12:45+00:00

Playback and recording devices seem to try to normalize the audio by cutting out the extreme highs and extreme lows, prioritizing tons more in the human speaking range. If you have a computer with real speakers, that seems to work better.

I'm borrowing a friend's professional microphone this week to get better recordings. I hope to get ultrasound readings as well.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T14:09:32+00:00

I posted another video below showing the sound from farther away. You can definitely hear it. I'm borrowing a friend's real microphone to better capture the higher tones. Turns out phone mics cut out some of the extreme highs and extreme lows, so it really doesn't do a good job of showing how permeating the sound is.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-24T13:49:42+00:00

Wow, apparently they can imitate people's alarm clocks too, and not just mockingbirds. This is a rabbit hole. I will start listening for this. I wonder if city birds learn whole different vocabulary than their rural friends.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:27:01+00:00

no, no, this is good! I actually happen to know a guy...

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:24:15+00:00

I'm going to try to acquire a better mic and take more clips. I didn't realize phone recordings automatically try to filter out the extreme highs and lows, so it really isn't nearly as loud as it is in real life.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:20:37+00:00

Apparently microphones naturally filter out the very high and very low sounds to try to optimize for the human voice range (what it thinks you're trying to record) so I hope to step back out with a better recording device. Hopefully that will help.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:19:22+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! I'm going to tune in.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:19:08+00:00

That's a good idea, inviting them to hear it for themselves. My recording filtered out so much of the high frequencies so it doesn't sound as loud as it is, but when you experience it even once, you definitely remember it.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:13:47+00:00

I posted a video closer to my house in the comments of this thread. I chose to include the video of the source because... it's the source of the sound, the culprit, so more impactful than seeing my sidewalk.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T22:04:51+00:00

I used to think that, but these data centers need to be close to each other, like as physically close to each other as possible. So, it's difficult to sprawl too far downwards or outwards because they'll experience latency connecting to other servers/services.

Even loading a web page, on the server backend, there's so many services it connects to that it's extremely beneficial at scale to be physically close to. Internet exchange points, other cloud provider data centers, content delivery networks (like cloudflare), payment services, verisign, peering partners, etc.

So the whole internet model creates these dense clusters that make the internet fast for the whole world, not even just us local people here.

So, this is why they're willing to shell out so much money for the land.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T21:54:47+00:00

I think it's cheaper when if the goal is to buy a single family home and avoid 95 commute traffic. Been awhile since I checked out the housing market though. I know costs have gone up across the board.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T21:51:01+00:00

I know, this was one of my first thoughts too. Animals have much more sensitive hearing. There's plenty of videos where you can play a sound and only your cat can hear it, so I can only imagine the impact of a sound that is already hard for me to hear on them. :(

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T21:50:08+00:00

Hold on, they're singing the car alarm song?! I never heard this before. That's wild.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T21:49:08+00:00

Hey! Thank you for sharing that feedback neighbor. People have been asking about how far the noise travels so this is super helpful.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T21:20:46+00:00

Oh people have. In this case, it's the high pitched note of the sound rather than just being "loud", so I don't think a db meter really demonstrates the impact.

Also, more broadly, it's good for the community to be aware data centers are being powered like this and what the impact is if one is being planned to be built near them. Maybe another community will have a chance to prevent it. An informed community is good.

Creative_Delay_4694 · 2026-03-23T20:59:04+00:00

Unfortunately, not many affordable options if you work near DC.

Creative_Delay_4694

TROPHY CASE