Humming is not necessarily good. It quite often is the contacts not closing tightly.
next would be a coil vibrating.
Yes, dust can effect it as the box is not sealed.
If you have an air compressor blow it out good. No, air compressor, use a can of compressed air.
Yes, turn the power off during maintenance.
If the noise does not go away, you could carefully use a non-metallic object to push against the relays to see if you can change sound.
Turn off main breaker in the rig to prevent opening the neutral and causing 240 volts to get into system.
Does the sound change when connecting heavy loads such as AC?
TRC transfer switch