Little electric shocks?

[dccruiser]

Ooh err...

oops sorry missus ... he laughed in in best sid james style!

Rick

[Arthur Brown]

A Static shock is instant and instantly over, it's usually caused by synthetic fibres, shoes etc. they are nothing to do with mains or battery power, sometimes you can see or hear the spark. Antistatic sprays may help.

 

A current electric shock is a continuous tingle of duration as long as you touch something, it comes from a mains sort of voltage source (certainly over 100v). These are usually faults in a supply and need repairing as soon as possible by a competent person.

[Emily]

A Static shock is instant and instantly over, it's usually caused by synthetic fibres, shoes etc. they are nothing to do with mains or battery power, sometimes you can see or hear the spark. Antistatic sprays may help.

 

A current electric shock is a continuous tingle of duration as long as you touch something, it comes from a mains sort of voltage source (certainly over 100v). These are usually faults in a supply and need repairing as soon as possible by a competent person.

Ah, thank you. It's definitely static then. Just a thought: I've been making things out of antlers for the past few days and spending hours and hours rubbing them with sandpaper (wow, my spellcheck tried to replace 'sandpaper' with 'endosperm') - could I be charging myself up with static? I went and prodded someone a while ago to see what happened and I gave them a shock. I don't know quite what to think about my newfound superpower.

[Sir Nibble]

Of course it's static! If had been a live to hull fault there would have been no shock for the same reason birds can sit on power lines. The boat is earthed, therefore it's YOU that are at a higher potential ergo it's static. Try different shoes or better still barefoot. If you can dump the charge as it builds up you won't get any more shocks.

Ah, thank you. It's definitely static then. Just a thought: I've been making things out of antlers for the past few days and spending hours and hours rubbing them with sandpaper (wow, my spellcheck tried to replace 'sandpaper' with 'endosperm') - could I be charging myself up with static? I went and prodded someone a while ago to see what happened and I gave them a shock. I don't know quite what to think about my newfound superpower.

that'll do it. That and any dust still about.

[bizzard]

Beware of yourself spontaneously exploding. Pardon the expression, but erm far.ing and causing methane gas whilst wearing synthetic underwear that is undergoing a static electrical discharge can cause this combusting ph ph phe phenominummm. BOOM!!!! Google it. Noshing too much over cooked vegetables like sprouts is a good maker of methane gas. Personal spontaneous combustion caused by this happens occasionally, especially in the USA where many tend to gorge and gorge on mountains of rich food.

[zenataomm]

Just a thunk!

 

Does your cooker have an ignition button?

If it does and it's battery powered there's bound to be a capacitor in it which might be shorting to the frame of the cooker. then when you touch it the build up jumps to you.

 

Then again I know nowt about sparks.

[Emily]

Try different shoes or better still barefoot.

Hmm... I got some new shoes just before it started the other day! Will see what happens if I don't wear them tomorrow.

 

Beware of yourself spontaneously exploding. Pardon the expression, but erm far.ing and causing methane gas whilst wearing synthetic underwear that is undergoing a static electrical discharge can cause this combusting ph ph phe phenominummm. BOOM!!!! Google it. Noshing too much over cooked vegetables like sprouts is a good maker of methane gas. Personal spontaneous combustion caused by this happens occasionally, especially in the USA where many tend to gorge and gorge on mountains of rich food.

Do you think I could light someone else's fart if I prodded them just at the right moment?

 

Just a thunk!

 

Does your cooker have an ignition button?

If it does and it's battery powered there's bound to be a capacitor in it which might be shorting to the frame of the cooker. then when you touch it the build up jumps to you.

 

Then again I know nowt about sparks.

Nah, me cooker button doesn't work.

[AndrewIC]

Sounds like static. I used to work in a school physics lab, and this sort of cold dry weather was always good for electrostatics experiments. The new shoes may be a factor.

[arbutus]

The weather is currently cold and dry with low humidity so any static electricity has problems draining away as it would under more humid conditions.

My guess is that you are generating static electricity, either by rubbing the antlers, wearing synthetic

clothing or have synthetic carpets.

It’s probably actually you discharging static electricity to earth rather than a faulty appliance shocking you.

As a computer maintenance man, I used to have a few calls each year, especially with printers, with operators complaining that the printer was giving then shocks. It turned out to be the computer operators discharging themselves through the machine and the calls were normally in very dry weather.

One customer had a large steel fire door with a steel handle as the entrance / exit from their computer room.

Whenever there were complaints that the steel handle was giving people shocks, the manager would spray the carpet in the room with dilute fabric softener, as used in washing machines (this was a washing machine manufacturer). It always cured the problem for a few weeks. Fabric softener has anti-static properties.

You could try doing the same.

[Peter X]

It does sound rather like the static I used to experience in an office in 1980-81. We had carpet tiles in some artificial material (nylon?) and I found that each time I sat down to use a VDU (=Visual Display Unit, a "dumb terminal" i.e. just a screen and keyboard), as soon as I first touched it I'd get a static shock because the case was metal and earthed. Other companies I worked at before and after that one had the standard DEC VT52 VDU which had a plastic case, but this one had the nasty cheap plug-compatible VDUs with metal cases. I used to get headaches too if I spent too long looking at the slightly wobbly screen without a break.

 

Anyway, I found the answer was not to touch the offending item first with a fingertip, but to use the heel of my hand to discharge the static, which was much less painful, something to do with its much greater area I suppose. Maybe try that on your boat?

[bizzard]

I think Emily ought to be connected to the boat's steel at all times for the reason that I've already mentioned above, especially at meal times, but most importantly when on the throne by the use of a jumper cable, one end can be clamped to her wrist or ankle, the other end clamped to the stove flue pipe as that was the metal object in question that she was complaining about of getting a shock off. But maybe a jump lead will be a bit inconvenient to trail about all over the shop. The only other alternative would be to completely electrically insulate herself by either completely binding herself from head to foot with insulating tape or better still self amalgamating tape just like an Egyptian mummy or to wear an all rubber onesie complete with rubber gloves and boots such as a divers wet or dry suit or Frogmans suit.

I fear though that a summer Heatwave would render any of these garments too unbearably hot to wear so the jump cable would have to be substituted.

Edited February 5, 2015 by bizzard

[BlueStringPudding]

Change your socks and shoes to ones made of a different material, Emily. I get static shocks off my boat if I wear certain shoes.

[rjasmith]

As it now seems that Emily's problem is just down to static electricity and not anything nastier, perhaps it's time to have a bit more fun with it (and also demonstrate a bit of simple physics).

 

Don't worry this is not quite as outlandish an idea as one of Bizzard's!

 

I used to show my children this when they came into the office at work (rather a long time ago now).

 

If you build up a static charge on your body (eg by walking across the carpet) the voltage you end up at obeys the following little equation:-

 

V= Q/C

 

where V is your voltage, Q is the charge you've built up and C is your body capacitance.

 

After crossing the floor you will have a certain amount of Q on you. C depends on how big you are plus to some extent the area of your feet on the floor and the thickness of your insulating shoe soles. V is going to have reached thousands of volts!

 

I surmised in a dull moment at work that if I could reduce C by jumping off the floor (effectively increasing my "shoe sole" thickness) my voltage would rise up for a fixed amount of Q and I could make much bigger sparks when I earthed myself than if I just stayed on the ground.

 

Looks totally mad and needs a bit of practice to get the timing right but it does work!

 

So that it doesn't hurt when you make the spark, hold something metal in your hand (eg a metal spoon) and present that to the stove or whatever. The larger skin contact will reduce the sensation of the electric shock dramatically.

 

Richard

[Theo]

You could make sure that you discharge yourself by carrying a needle or some other shrp conductor. How about wearing a pickelhaub?

 

This is all about electric potential gradient and corona discharge. Lightning conductors have shrp points so that they can discharge clouds before the lightning strikes.

 

N

[Neil2]

Static electricity is a common problem in the winter because a lot of our clothing at this time of year contains materials such as Polyester and Polypropylene that very easily become negatively charged when in close contact with a substance that easily becomes positively charged such as, surprise, surprise, human skin.

 

By contrast in the summer folk tend to wear more cotton based stuff that's pretty neutral.

 

The reason some people are more prone than others is usually if their skin is naturally very dry, as moisture conducts away the excess charge. This is why anti static treatments for wool/nylon carpets are basically a hygroscopic substance that keeps the carpet slightly damp. The synthetic soles of most shoes these days react with nylon and or wool to create an electric charge. Carpet tiles OTOH are polypropylene and won't react the same way, but if your shoes have leather soles, contact with polypropylene will create an excess charge.

 

I've never heard of static being a problem on a boat before, I always assumed that the air inside a boat is likely to be more humid than in your typical house and would therefore conduct the excess charges away, but I suppose in winter if you have a woodburner going the air could become very dry.

 

 

 

 

 

[jollymoggy]

I used to get this in a house in Spain. Used to happen badly when washing up or taking the wet clothes out the washer. Well it turned out the house hadn't been earthed properly.

[Alan Saunders]

If it is a short, sharp shock it is static discharge. If continued contact results in a continuing 'buzz' it may be a dangerous earth fault. I have had sufficient static and 'AC' shocks to know the difference.

 

Our large office building had synthetic carpets and steel/glass partitioned offices. Whenever I walked from the canteen to my office I would knock on my own (steel) office door with my knuckles to avoid the 'shock'. Previously, the worst case of static charge that I encountered was in student accomodation; after sitting in a plastic chair for an hour or two, writing a thesis or completing a lab. report, I would grasp the bottom of the chair and the screws attaching the tubular steel frame to the plastic seat tub made the perfect point discharge; Ouch!

 

As others have said; cold, dry conditions are more likely provide the low humidity that enhances this condition and any abrasion will produce static charges. Sanding bone may be as (more) effective than the classic physics experiment of rubbing a glass rod with cat fur.

 

Should you take Bizzard's suggestion seriously there are anti-static mats, wrist straps and leads intended to provide anti-static protection to sensitive, low current solid state circuits. These include a large (10Mῼ?) resistor to reduce the chance of electrocution if the grounding point is accidentally raised to a lethal potential.

 

Chances are you have nothing to worry about.

HTH, Alan

[IanD]

When the weather's like that, if I wear my trainers I get zapped (with sparks you can hear!) getting out of the car, but doesn't happen with normal shoes.

[Emily]

Cheers everybody! It's really misty here today and I haven't had time to sand any antlers and, despite contriving excuses to prod people in the face, I sadly seem to have lost my electrical charge. Thank you all for your help.

[Phil Ambrose]

So Emily, this one occasion when losing your spark is a good thing. Glad it didn't turn out to be anything serious.

Phil

[jonesthenuke]

It sounds much more like static than any supply problem.

 

I concur with the suggestion in an earlier post on using fabric softener. Use it for clothes but also dilute well and spray on carpets and floors. I have done this before at work and it was successful ( the floor spraying that is). Choose a softener you like the smell of. At work I told the staff it was a very expensive anti static treatment and it took ages before they realised it was Comfort fabric softener. Repeat every week or when required.

 

Hope this helps.

[Peter X]

There's an elephant in the room in this topic, or to be more precise a deer. After 46 posts, I'm going to ask the question which others must have been thinking; what do you make out of antlers? Has all this sanding down of antlers passed without comment because it's a traditional activity on the canals to while away the long winter nights?

 

The reaction in bricks and mortar would go something like this: someone at no. 51 would say to their neighbour in no. 53 (over the garden fence) "I saw her at no. 55 take some antlers into the house the other day, what's that all about?". The reply might be "Dunno, but I've heard a lot of scraping sounds like sandpaper lately". Puzzled looks all round, change of subject.

 

If an experiment confirms that it's this sanding down of antlers which is indeed the cause of the static, the answer is to do what they do in the electronics industry, mentioned in a previous post, and earth yourself while doing the sanding, probably with a wire from a metal bracelet on your wrist to the nearest earthed metal object, i.e. anything you normally get a shock from. That'll stop a charge building up.

[craftycarper]

There's an elephant in the room in this topic, or to be more precise a deer. After 46 posts, I'm going to ask the question which others must have been thinking; what do you make out of antlers? Has all this sanding down of antlers passed without comment because it's a traditional activity on the canals to while away the long winter nights?

 

The reaction in bricks and mortar would go something like this: someone at no. 51 would say to their neighbour in no. 53 (over the garden fence) "I saw her at no. 55 take some antlers into the house the other day, what's that all about?". The reply might be "Dunno, but I've heard a lot of scraping sounds like sandpaper lately". Puzzled looks all round, change of subject.

 

If an experiment confirms that it's this sanding down of antlers which is indeed the cause of the static, the answer is to do what they do in the electronics industry, mentioned in a previous post, and earth yourself while doing the sanding, probably with a wire from a metal bracelet on your wrist to the nearest earthed metal object, i.e. anything you normally get a shock from. That'll stop a charge building up.

. I don't know what Emily makes from her antlers but I have a rather nice catapult and the prong(the Y shaped bit) has been made from a buffalo horn, that sands down lovely and the finished product looks as smooth as plastic but is as hard as stone.

[Emily]

I make hair forks and hair sticks out of antler and wood and I sell them on my shop on Etsy on t'interwebs.

[Barry]

What's your business name on Etsy, Emily?