Is this single click noise in basement (every 3 minute) related to HVAC?

There is a cracking sound in house, I need your expertise to identify the root cause.

I took some photo (http://imgur.com/a/jKmsq)

1)the sound is like this: I can hear it in first floor but if I go to basement it's louder (here is recording: https://soundcloud.com/hiac-banks/new-recording-46basement)

2)The noise is one single click, then come back a few minutes late. Here is my observation of frequency: during day time (outside temperature is 60 and inside is 63, sunny, no wind. it repeat on average every 3 minutes, sometimes every 50 seconds, some every 5 minutes ).

At night it's less frequent and I almost didn't notice (outside temperate is 45, and inside is 63). And I just adjusted thermostat and increase temperature to 67, the heat works fine, and there is no noise.

3) when the noise happening, there is no water running (no toilet flush, no dishwasher, washer running), A/C is not running, the water heater pipe is warm when I touch it. The sound are not from furnace or water heater, rather it from the basement ceiling (http://imgur.com/a/jKmsq)

4) I am not sure if big beam or joists issue, or maybe there is some pressure in the water pipe. When I run hot water in 2nd floor or 1st floor, I can hear the pipe rattling sound (from behind the wall), my solution to the rattling ling sound is to reduce the water flow. But I can't trace the source of this single strike cracking sound.

5) we have some high wind a month ago. my neighbor's chimney cap was blown away. And in 1st floor, when it's quiet, I can hear some wind blowing (sounds far away though).

Thanks a ton for your help!

submitted by /u/hiacbanks
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