It's a shocking season! The shocks of course coming when you reach to grab a door knob, a light switch, a coat hook...after shuffling across your floor to your closet in the morning to pull out your clothing for the day when - zap - you get a shock. You go to your car - another zap. You grab the handle at the gas pump - zap! Most of us know that we get a lot of these shocks at this time of the year, and not in summer. Here's why.
AIR AS A SPONGE
Your kitchen sponge holds water. Bigger sponges can hold more water than smaller sponges. The air acts similarly. For air, temperature is the determining factor for how much water air can hold (the "size" of the sponge). Warm air can hold a lot more water than cold air. There's some fancy math here. But, let's keep it simple. In Colorado Springs (yes...it does depend on air pressure):
| AIR TEMPERATURE | WATER THE AIR CAN HOLD (GRAMS WATER/KILOGRAM AIR) |
| 32 F | 4.73 |
| 50 F | 9.58 |
| 68 F | 18.48 |
This may still be a bit confusing - but the main thing to notice is...the amount of water the air can hold goes up dramatically when we raise temperature by a small amount.
Therefore: Cold air can only hold a small fraction of the water that warm air can. It's a dramatically smaller sponge.
WHY YOUR HEATER CREATES SHOCKING CONDITIONS:
So - to your home. Your heater pulls in outside air. This air might be relatively wet for what it can hold. But as you can see above...if it's cold out...that's not much.
When your heater heats this air, the sponge gets bigger (it's hotter) but the water in that sponge stays the same. Instead of a damp sponge, now you've got a dry sponge. Dry air acts as an insulator: it lets charge build up in separate places. Wet air lets charge dissipate easily. When you walk across a carpet in dry air, charge builds up in your body, until you touch a metal surface...and get a zap.
WHY YOU DON'T GET SHOCKED OUTSIDE:
Outside...relative humidity is higher - the sponge is wetter. This is typically enough to stop you from getting shocked outside. But what about when you get a shock from your car? If you're leaving your car it's the same story. You probably heat your car. When you grab your door handle… charge gets released all at once.
But if you get a shock at the pump or entering your car… it's usually a very dry day outside with low relative humidity. At that point - good luck trying to avoid a lot of zaps. That is however why you can get shocked inside a lot, but only sometimes get shocked grabbing the gas pump.
HOW TO REDUCE THE CHANCE OF GETTING SHOCKED:
Since the culprit of all the winter zaps is dry air… humidifying your home will significantly reduce how often you get shocked. That's your number one too. You can also wear non-rubber soled shoes. Rubber is a good insulator, letting charge build in you, and makes it easier to get shocked.
For clothing… natural fibers allow better static dissipation than synthetics.
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