I own an 08' Edge and no whinning noise. That said I did just drop it off at the dealership for different prob (rear passenger door latch CLANKING niose only when its cold out). So while they had my car in the shop they gave me a rental 08' Edge from Hertz rental and that one did have a very loud distinguishable high pitch noise to it. Something I noticed that made that Edge different from my own is that Hertz places a GPS module in their cars. Whether the GPS was on or off that high pitch noise was present and very annoying!
When I shut off the heat (ventalation knob pointing straight up) then the noise went away.
Perhaps it is nothing more than a poor ground from the GPS unit or somehow related to the heating system.
Hope that evaluation helped you out!
