[TriLUG] [OT] ESD issues

[William Sutton]

THank you for the suggestions!

-- 
William Sutton


On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:

> On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, William Sutton wrote:
> 
> > It's usually 20-something percent humidity
> 
> too low. You're really interested in the dew point, not the 
> rel humidity. At 70deg you'd want 40% or so. Since you 
> aren't bothered by skin problems, just increase the humidity 
> till the sparks stop. The problems will all go away by 
> Memorial day when the humidity goes through the roof and 
> won't be back till Nov.
> 
> > So does this require buying distilled water?
> 
> yes.
> 
> > Can I get away with tap water or is that filtered?
> 
> do not use tap water - it has dissolved minerals (eg silica, 
> CaS04). The current generation of humidifiers are ultrasonic 
> and spray whole water droplets into the air, which then 
> evaporate leaving sharp edged micro-rocks in the air to 
> settle into your lungs. (The previous generation boiled the 
> water for you and you could use tap water - except that the 
> heating element wound up covered with and the tank filled 
> with hard boiler scale). I doubt if there's been any studies 
> one way or another on the matter, but since the lungs seem 
> to have problems with anything but air with a little water 
> in it, I'll take the safe route. I use about $50 worth of 
> distilled H2O (in 2.5gal jugs) in a winter. It's cheaper 
> than the medical bills I used to pay each winter to look 
> after my skin.
> 
> Most of the humidifiers seem to have been designed by people 
> trying only to make them look attractive - they're hard to 
> fill, control, too small a tank etc. I have a ReliOn 
> H-0565-0 with about a 2 gal tank that I use in about 2-3 
> days (2000sqft house) that I got at WalMart. It's OK apart 
> from needing to carefully line the top and bottom halves 
> after filling or they won't mate (oh and the filler cap 
> cross threads by default - unless you are careful putting it 
> on). This is better than the previous one.
> 
> Joe
> 
>