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Static electricity....again

Ok, I'm ready to burn the house down and move to Florida. I had a similar problem last winter. I live in Colorado and it's been snowing here like crazy. It is super dry here. My brother fried two pre amps last winter due to lightning bolts flying from his fingers to his pre amp anytime he touched the pre amp...

So here's what I have going on. I have all of my cables lifted off the ground with wooden blocks. My Equipment is plugged into a ps audio quintet, except for my amp which is plugged directly into the wall (porter port).

I don't have any remote controllers in my set-up so whenever I touch my equipment, I ground myself on a screw on the light switch first. I'll have so much electricity built up in my body that I can actually feel the hairs on my legs stand up when I do this.

Okay, well it has gotten to be so bad now that when I am just walking across the room, I can hear a few small pops coming out of my speakers. These are directly related to the static that is building up via my socks dragging across the carpet. I'm %100 sure of that.

My question is, what the heck do I do to remedy this problem before I damage any of my equipment? My house is probably 20 years old. Am I having these issues because the ground in my house is no good?

Btw, last winter when I was having these issues, I sprayed fabric softener all over and that seemed to work for, oh, about 20 minutes.

I'm going to get a humidifier and see how that helps. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated! I'm about ready to change my user name to Zues!
128x128b_limo
b_limo's avatar
b_limo OP
2,272 posts
 
Cerrot,
Its interesting. I had my equipment on a metal framed wood shelved rack last year and when I'd ground myself on the rack I could hear popping noises through my speakers. No cables were touching the rack, sooo, the charge must have been going through the metal rack, transferring to the wooden shelves and entering my equipment through the equipments footers...?

Anyways.... I took care of my problem by not wearing my sweat pants (don't worry, I'm not naked, although, that might help lessen the interuptions...) not wearing socks and putting lotion on my feet so they aren't dry at all (can't believe I actually shared that, but oh well).

Last year I did spray an anti static spray on the carpet and cables but that would only work for about a half a day.

I think humidifier, less static buildup in clothes and socks (bare feet that aren't dry), thats they way to go.

What antistatic products are out there for our cables??
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
My problem was wearing slippers on carpeting. Lots of static build up. Wearing only socks now with no problems.
russe41
95 posts
 
In the telecom industry we always use a grounding strap which in our case is connected to the rack. In your case buy a strap which fits like a bracelet on your wrist and connect to the grounding screw of a grounded outlet and put it on before touching anything or at least touch the metal on it to dissapate the static.
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Anti-Static-Wrist-Adjustable-Grounding/dp/B00004Z5D1
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
B_Limo. Funy you said that. I am wondering why this years static was a non-issue for me (and I am in NY and we have had the same winter as prior years, maybe worse..) and your post made me figure it out.

Very dry skin for me this year and first year I have been using lotion (there, I said it too!) and, I guess its keeping the static down!
xti16
1,525 posts
 
What antistatic products are out there for our cables??
I have Nordost Eco3 and Eco3X. The 3X lasts longer IMO. But you also get 1/2 the amount for the same price (4oz vs 8oz).
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