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My dad's car had velour interior. Anytime the humidity was below 50%, expect the car to zap you and to be zapped touching door handles. I assume there are/were numerous gas station fuel fires from cars with velour upholstery.


One stupid little thing I realized after having sometimes been consistently zapped by mybcar door and other times not getting zapped in the same weather and humidity:

If I open the door and grasp for the (metal) edge of it before I start sliding out of my seat I will be grounded and consequently not build up charge as I leave the seat.


One of the worst shocks I've received in my life was not accidentally touching one of the prongs of a half-inserted 120v mains plug, but pulling one of my fleece blankets off of the other on my bed, and then getting my shoed foot within 6 inches of my metal bed frame. I almost fell over, grabbed the upper part of the frame with my hand, and received yet another painful shock.


I’ve had more than my fair share of 120v shocks, but the worst shock(s), by far, happened when blowing cellulose insulation into my attic. The 75’ (100’?) hose was a little unwieldy and I wanted more control in filling areas near eaves (small attic, lots of crawling), so I taped a 3’ section of 2” pvc pipe to the end of the hose. Holy hell… continuously, the static would build for a few minutes until it’d discharge through my gloves. First time it happened I pulled my glove off thinking it left a burn. There wasn’t really much I could do the discharge the static when I wasn’t near a vent or flue.


We had some carpet at my old workplace that would always charge you up and get you zapped. Whenever you touched anything metal. So the old and wise folks there immediately told you to grab your key when you get up and then use it to touch something metal, so the spark is between your key and the metal object and you don't feel anything.


I am a static electricity "magnet". I keep getting shocked a lot, painfully, in environments where no one else is, which is kind of bad for my mental health if I focus too much on it. I've learned all kinds of methods to cope.

For example, we have a few bar stools at home; sitting on one always primes me for getting shocked after getting off it. I figured a few rules, such as never wearing anything isolating on my feet, so I can dissipate charges by keeping one foot on the metal part of the chair; or, failing that, I make sure there's always a metal object in grasping range, which I can use to later discharge in a less painful way.

(Pro tip: don't do the metal discharge thing with the hand you wear rings on, and hold the metal item so it doesn't touch the underside of your fingers - getting a shock through a nerve isn't pleasant at all.)

Another thing: I always keep a metal coat hanger around the bedroom, so that whenever I have to deal with blankets, I can keep "swiping" them to collect charge and then transfer them away by touching something grounded with the coat hanger.

Also: I always have my keys on me when away, in an easily-accessible place, specifically so I always have a metal object I can use to offload static charge in a pain-free way.

Also: over the years I kind of habituated all kinds of subtle behaviors designed to keep me safe from getting shocked by my wife or kids. Basically, if I feel one of them just got charged (e.g. via the blankets or the bar stool mentioned before), or I haven't kept track of their recent movements in a static-rich environment, if there's a need or chance of any kind of physical contact, I instinctively first touch using my elbow or some other pain-minimizing way, just to equalize charges with them. My wife sometimes notices when I do it to her, but fortunately, she is quite understanding.




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