[TriLUG] [OT] ESD issues

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, William Sutton wrote:

> I don't think it's related to humidity levels since it 
> happens everywhere (including outdoors, although lower 
> humidity seems to exacerbate the effect).

it's totally related to humidity.

The air inside has the same dew point as the air outside. If 
the air outside is at 45degF and it's saturated (100% 
humidity, ie it's raining) and you bring that air inside and 
warm it to 70degF, it will now have a relative humidity of 
<5% - ie about the humidity you have in a desert and 
in forests, has all the firefighters on alert.

If you have synthetic blankets, after you turn the lights 
out, rub the blankets vigorously together - you'll see 
flashes of light.

My skin starts coming out in a rash each winter (about Nov, 
when the weather changes), and my lips crack.
It seems most people don't do well in really low humidity
It would be nice if work places maintained a reasonable
humidity in winter but they don't. Philip Greenspun (find
with google) recommends it for good productivity in winter.

The cure is humidity - move to Florida or Galveston. If 
you're staying here, you can make your house safe if you run 
a humidifier about 1/2gal/day in a normal sized house (used 
distilled, not filtered water, otherwise you'll be injecting 
nano-sized particles of silica into the air - and your 
lungs). It keeps my skin under control, and stops the 
blankets from lighting up.

After you step out of the car, hold the key and touch it 
against the metal of the door before you press the lock. As 
for computers, I touch a metal part of the case (not just 
the paint) before I insert or remove cables, zip disks, 
flash-memory sticks.

> So the question is....does anyone have a good solution for 
> this?

Move somewhere where the outside air never gets cold

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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