Just moved house. Have poltergeists.

If they switched to an energy efficient home without renovating the inside, it could cause all sorts of things like that. Energy efficient windows and doors are designed to work with the heating system in such a way that the inside of the house is pretty much air-freaking-tight to the outside. If they did a shoddy job on the renovations, that could be part of it. Also, energy efficient heating is powered by the water heater, and if the plumbing wasn't changed, that might have something to do with the shower. With the plumbing, you're supposed to have backflow meters installed at the same time you switch to energy efficient design.

(At least, these are the things I understand after reading a few articles. I might be completely insane.)
 
I'm thinking your house is on an ancient Indian burial ground?

My second guess: the house is so well insulated that opening certain doors in the house can cause changes in air pressure which pops other doors open.

Or you have a cat which is looking for the cache of cat food.
 
House is built on a cemetary and they only removed the headstones and left the bodies when building,to cut costs.
Does the TV come on to an untuned channel?

Definetly Poltergeist. ;)
 
Alien life forms. It sure sound like ALF. Sound like you are having the same problems as the Tanners. Are you missing a cat?
 
No-one has given you any low tech explanations for the shower coming on and off. You did not say how fast it came on. Was it just dripping or was it full on? If the former then it may be due to the hot tap cooling down after a shower and then starting to drip.

Doors opening can be a sign of air currents that are otherwise hard to detect by other means.
 
I think i figured it out.

foxmaiden said:
snip...

Doors started opening on their own. Even if they were firmly closed and latched and there was no air circulation or anything they would just swing open – all the interior doors and some of the cupboard doors do this regularly.
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This happens when you or someone else in the house opens the door or cupboard. (ETA: I meant to say pushes/pulls the door - it will carry on on its own.)

foxmaiden said:
Then sometimes the shower just turns on and turns off again when no one is in the bathroom or sometimes when one of us is in the bathroom the shower will just start and then stop.

...snip...
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This is because the shower isn't in the bathroom. Someone in the shower room turned on the shower and then turned it off.

i.e. you described a perfectly normal household in paranormal terms? :)
 
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ChristineR said:
The only other thing I can think of is air pressure. Parts of the house are so well insulated from one another that temperature and air pressure differentials push the doors open.
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That was my guess.

The wind tends to whip across the front of our house, when it's blowing and you open the front door internal doors will pop open.

Back to the thread to see if all is revealed
 
LibraryLady said:
Now that's just silliness. Santa doesn't haunt houses - duh!
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:D

I'm quite liking the suggestion that in fact this is a perfectly normal house cunningly described to appear otherwise... but I'm not sure this really fits with the description of the events as "strange things", nor with the implication that poltergeists had already been posited (perhaps jokingly) as an explanation (foxmaiden's partner said "I still prefer poltergeists").

I'm stumped anyway, if it's not the ghost of Santa.
 
Sorry it took me so long to get back. Thanks for all the fun answers!

Water saving windows! -- LOL -- Yeah, that was just clumsy writing.

OK, the real clues burried in the description were:
Old house
Water saving appliances
New exterior doors (infer: old interior doors)
Fresh paint

It's not really fair because any of you who would have checked to see if the doors were square or if the latches were alligned with the strike plate would have probably noticed the real cause ...

All the interior doors and cupboards are original to the house and have been painted repeatedly over the past 57 years. The paint layers have built up to such a point that the paint on the hinge side of the door and door frame is so thick it puts pressure on the door to open. The latches have also gotten a little loose over the years and some of them don't extend all the way because paint on the edge of the mortise has restricted them. They still latch, but just barely. The doors will close and latch, but eventually they give in to the pressure from the paint build up and pop open.

The shower also wasn't fair because you would have had to look at it to figure it out. They installed a rain style shower head to compensate for low water pressure. (again I can't post a link to exactly what it looks like, but google "rain shower head" and you will see some examples).

The shower head holds about three cups of water. When you take a shower the water starts to drain back down the pipes and that suction prevents the water in the shower head from draining out into the shower. Eventually the suction breaks and all the water in the shower head comes cascading down as if the shower had been turned on full blast for a few seconds.

The thing about both of these "phenomena" is that they don't happen at predictable intervals after the actual cause -- the doors don't pop open right after you close them and the shower doesn't drain right after you get out of the shower, it can be anything from ten minutes to hours later.

Chaos I suppose. Anyway, the random time intervals between cause and effect make it possible to start inventing other possible causes.
 
foxmaiden said:
Sorry it took me so long to get back. Thanks for all the fun answers!

Water saving windows! -- LOL -- Yeah, that was just clumsy writing.

OK, the real clues burried in the description were:
Old house
Water saving appliances
New exterior doors (infer: old interior doors)
Fresh paint

It's not really fair because any of you who would have checked to see if the doors were square or if the latches were alligned with the strike plate would have probably noticed the real cause ...

All the interior doors and cupboards are original to the house and have been painted repeatedly over the past 57 years. The paint layers have built up to such a point that the paint on the hinge side of the door and door frame is so thick it puts pressure on the door to open. The latches have also gotten a little loose over the years and some of them don't extend all the way because paint on the edge of the mortise has restricted them. They still latch, but just barely. The doors will close and latch, but eventually they give in to the pressure from the paint build up and pop open.

The shower also wasn't fair because you would have had to look at it to figure it out. They installed a rain style shower head to compensate for low water pressure. (again I can't post a link to exactly what it looks like, but google "rain shower head" and you will see some examples).

The shower head holds about three cups of water. When you take a shower the water starts to drain back down the pipes and that suction prevents the water in the shower head from draining out into the shower. Eventually the suction breaks and all the water in the shower head comes cascading down as if the shower had been turned on full blast for a few seconds.

The thing about both of these "phenomena" is that they don't happen at predictable intervals after the actual cause -- the doors don't pop open right after you close them and the shower doesn't drain right after you get out of the shower, it can be anything from ten minutes to hours later.

Chaos I suppose. Anyway, the random time intervals between cause and effect make it possible to start inventing other possible causes.
Click to expand...

Foxmaiden,

That is truly lovely! Now get in some hot shot psychic investigators and see what amazing stuff they will create of it!
 
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