Lately I keep getting static shocks off everything at work. I just got a particularly powerful one.
Anecdote: I frightened my mum out of her skin once, we were building a kitchen and I had been sliding about on the laminated floor on a pillow (making the floor). I stood up, and put my hand on the radiator. Got a HUGE static shock that made me start towards my mum and shout ‘Bastard!’.
Welcome.
It’s been happening to me for years. I’ve tried Static Guard, wrist straps, shoe straps and grounding pads to no avail. Summer, winter it doesn’t matter.
I get the shit shocked out of me on a daily basis. Home and at work. Carpet or concrete.
Beats me.
I’ve always related them to dry air. I used to only get them in the winter back east but I get the every day here in the desert. It sucks.
That could be what’s causing my other problems (dry air): Hyper sensetive skin on my palms, and very sensetive teeth.
Recently I’ve developed this strange aversion to touching fabric with my palms. All other skin is ok, back of the hand even, but If I touch things with my palms it feels horrible.
Maybe I am becoming a superhero!
OCD Man?
Able to clean tall buildings in a single bound!
I hate getting static shocks - they hit me harder than most people it seems. Winter time is hell for me; I start looking like some kind of freak when I (involuntarily) reach out to touch something and draw back, just knowing I’m going to get zapped. The supermarket is the worst place for this - especially if I’m pushing around one of those kiddy carriages with the big plastic seating thing on it - those things built up some static like you wouldn’t believe, especially when there’s fidgety kids on it. I reached out to get something off the shelf once and got a hell of a whallop - a woman about 5 feet down the aisle actually heard the zap. I was pretty ridiculous throughout the rest of the store, constantly touching metal things to make sure that I discharged every bit of static long before it could build into anything that monstrous again.
The world [of science] is a funny place. If it wasn’t for static, people would wonder why I and all my colleagues religiously hit the central metal post in the office with the backs of our hands. (until recently some people in my office get shocked more than me)
Back of the hand seems the easiest way to discharge. I dislike that pulling feeling you get when the shock is through your fingers.
There have been times when I’ve seen the charge jump from object to skin.
I used to play with my blankets and a comb in the dark to see some impressive electrical displays. I forgot all about that…I’ll give it a shot tonight if I remember.
My gf is like you Lobsang, she’s a walking van de graff generator, or so it seems sometimes. Fortunately, she mostly only shocks herself, though she does so with incredible regularity. I hardly ever pick up a charge…my own pet theory is that I actually pick up my feet when I walk.
Hmm, I usually use my elbow or upper arm to discharge, hands in general seem more sensitive.
I really must install a humidifier in my house someday, it’s so bad in the winter we sometimes walk around in the dark touching things when there’s nothing good on TV. I don’t think it’s me exactly, I work in a factory (big metal box basically) and never get shocked at work but at home it’s an expected winter hazard.
The most impressive one’s seem to result from walking in my socks to the television to turn the cable box on, with the tv sorta on but not cable it’s had plenty of time to build up it’s own layer of static already. I once got nearly a four inch arc between my outstretched finger and the buttons, that one left a mark even.
A smarter person would have remembered this before buying replacing the front door with one made of steel. :smack:
Heh. You’ve actually seen it sometimes. My brother used to rub my head on the trampoline for several minutes and then grab my hand and drag me over to the edge. He would hold my finger over the metal rim and ease it ever so slowly downward until and arc jumped at me.
Those were some nasty fucking static shocks.
In the winter, I run a humidifier and keep a spray bottle of water in the living room to reduce that static potential in the house. It works well.
The vision of you calling your mom a,… uh… what you called her, made me laugh.
Yep - I’m in Phoenix also, and the static electricity is a Bitch! It’s bad enough that I see arcs a lot of the time. I finally realised how damn dry Phoenix is when I got a nasty shock getting out of a car while it was pouring down rain. I don’t know anywhere else it’s dry enough to generate static while actually raining.