Winter is the season when static electricity can make life shockingly uncomfortable in your home. You may experience painful zaps whenever you contact a doorknob, light switch, or even a family member, and have problems combing your hair or peeling apart laundry that’s just come out of the dryer.
What you may not realize is that static electrical discharges can damage costly household electronics and appliances too, like your microwave, cell phone, TV, or computer.
What Causes Static Electricity?
These seemingly random electrical charges result from a transfer of electrons between two objects/materials that come in contact. One gets extra positive electrons, and the other extra negative, which creates a positive or negative charge. The nasty shocks you feel occur when two items with opposite charges get close together, and the charge gets released suddenly as their extra electrons leap the gap.
How Dry Vs. Humid Air Affects Static Electricity
You’ve probably wondered why static electrical shocks typically occur in the winter, and it’s because there’s less airborne moisture, especially indoors where your furnace is heating and drying out the air. When the air has plenty of humidity static discharges rarely happen, though, because there are water molecules on most surfaces. So, when items with opposite charges come in contact, any excess electrons move easily between them through this excellent conductor, and there’s no shocking zap.
Tips to Limit Static Electricity
You can use a number of methods to limit discomfort and damage from static discharges:
- Switch to socks/clothing made of cotton and wear leather-soled shoes because natural materials don’t pick up static charges like synthetics.
- Spray your furniture, carpets and clothing with an anti-static product, to make them less conductive.
- Put out containers of water around the house, or buy some potted plants, so there’s more moisture to evaporate into the air.
- Consider having a whole-home humidifier installed on your HVAC system so you have an easy-to-control method of boosting the humidity level in your home.
To learn more about limiting static electricity in your Lorain home with a whole-house humidifier, contact us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about home comfort and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.
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Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area