Inland, 70% average humidity outdoors. My car shocks me too, I also
only close the door by the glass. I think the whole car is charged up
relative to the road, since I don't get a shock touching anything
while my feet are still inside.
Yes it's plausible climate would have a big influence. I get into this
discussion every few months, you'd think eventually there would be
someone living in a desert reporting actual problems, but it's always
just conjecture. I'm not convinced even in the worst conditions the
failure rate would be detectable against other factors, since I have
heard of no such reports.
My reasoning is if I need to do something, it should be prompted by
some kind of problem not just because someone says so. Otherwise I
would end up doing all sorts of unnecessary stuff that may have been
mighty useful for someone somewhere but doesn't apply to my situation.
ST
On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 1:57 PM, Dylan Smith <dyls@...> wrote:
>
> Where do you live, though? Somewhere maritime or inland?
>
> As others have pointed out where you live has a great influence on how
> easily you can generate static. Where I live the air is almost always
> saturated (so it seems), it's so damp here especially in the winter if I
> don't clean my car, it doesn't merely get dirty, it actually gets algae
> and lichen growing on it, and the lane behind my house is a quagmire
> from November through to April (even if we get a week without rain, it
> still doesn't dry out). I have to be really, really trying to generate
> static electricity at all. So no, I don't particularly worry about static.
>
> I lived in North Carolina for a while (during a winter which was mostly
> very dry) and had to close car doors by the glass because if I didn't do
> so, I would get a very painful static electric shock. Even just getting
> in and out of the car would do it, I didn't need to drive anywhere, the
> car seat against a part man-made-fibre coat would be enough. If I had
> been handling components there, I dare say I would have had to have been
> very careful about static.
>
>