Dealing with static electricity (Fairbanks: house, buying, live)

[IllinoistoFairbanks]

The air is so dry here and I'm always getting shocked and my hair is full of static. Anybody have any solutions to this? Does a humidifier help in the house?

[ASpilot2be]

If your place has carpet, try a different type of socks. I beleive it is wool socks that will charge you up if you have carpet.

[Marty Van Diest]

If you do get a humidifier be careful. you could cause a lot of condensation where the humid air meets cold spots in the house. Mold can grow on those moist spots of condensation.

Try different socks as mentioned above, or different soles.

Dry air is a fact of life in an interior winter. I had a friend that brought up antique furniture from the mid west. The wood cracked in winter. Some of the cracks in that thick oak and walnut were an inch wide.

[Rance]

You could try an ionizer. One that produces negative ions. Some people I know use a spray mist bottle and mist their carpet when it gets staticy (is that a word?).
Rub yourself down with a dryer sheet!

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by IllinoistoFairbanks

The air is so dry here and I'm always getting shocked and my hair is full of static. Anybody have any solutions to this? Does a humidifier help in the house?

A humidifier is almost essential in the Interior.

The reason is because outside air is exceedingly cold, so it cannot hold much moisture, and on top of that there just isn't much moisture anyway. So in your house you heat up some of the -30F air that has 20% relative humidity... and it becomes warm air with 5% relative humidity! Static shocks, dry parched throats, nose problems and trouble with contact lenses are just the start of the list of problems.

Even with a humidifier you'll have problems with static though. The best anti-static solution that I know of is to use a spray container and mix a very dilute solution of almost any type of "household clearer" (I always used 409, but Mr. Clean or whatever will work just as well), and periodically spray the floor and chairs in areas that are a problem. For example, around a computer work station.

For computers another trick is to use a metal table, rather than wood, and connect the table to a ground (a water pipe, for example). With a wood table you can run a strip of metal edging or whatever along the front of the table, and ground that. It should be positioned so that it is almost impossible to sit at the computer without coming into contact with it. (The point is that if you build up a charge from walking across the floor, when you sit down it is discharged to ground rather than into the computer.)

[rwjoyak]

The best static shock I ever got in Fairbanks was once when I answered the phone and a strong spark jumped from it to my ear. That'll wake you up!
Also got a couple kissing my wife but figured that just meant the magic was still in our marriage - the sparks were still flying.
Don't live up there now but just moved to the Albuquerque area, which is even dryer than Fairbanks in the winter, so expect I'll soon be coping with winter-time static again.

[IllinoistoFairbanks]

Originally Posted by Rance

You could try an ionizer. One that produces negative ions. Some people I know use a spray mist bottle and mist their carpet when it gets staticy (is that a word?).
Rub yourself down with a dryer sheet!

Rubbing myself down with a dryer sheet is a good idea and I'll smell really good too! I"m definitely going to try this and it should work on my hair also.
I remember when I was a teenager there used to be an aerosol spray you could buy, I think it was called static guard? It smelled like elmers glue. I looked in Fred Meyers and didn't see any. Anyone know where it can be bought or if it even exist any longer? I like Rances idea better due to the fact I wouldn't smell like elmers glue....LOL..

[myrc60]

They don't have Staticguard? I used a lot of that in Chicago in the winter; I can't believe they quit making it. Check at Target or Walmart if you can. Wouldn't a vaporizer be better for putting humidity back into the house than a humidifier? Try boiling a big pot of water on your stove on days when it is really bad if you have no other alternatives.

[DannyL]

If you heat with a wood stove, a pot of water placed on it does help some.

[Tundra Boy]

Maybe look into buying some of the disposable shoe booties like surgeons wear in operating rooms, I think they wear those mostly to prevent static discharges that can ignite anesthesia gas (or so I've always believed). Have zero idea what they cost, but I wouldnt think they would be too expensive.


Regards,
TB