Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Static
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2007 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
For the past six months, my life at Fog Creek has had a rather unpleasant and pervasive physical element. I accumulate static electricity while in my Aeron chair.
It seemed to start during the rainy/snowy months, so I thought it was the rug, or the long underwear, or the humidity. But now it's continued through many sorts of weather, and my chair and I now sit atop hardwood. Every time I get up, I can hear the "rip" of the static clinging to the chair's weave, and I touch something metal and grounded nearby.
Ideas?
Comments
Brendan
http://www.xorph.com/
12 Apr 2007, 16:28 p.m.
Leonard
12 Apr 2007, 16:42 p.m.
We don't. But I was just thinking maybe it's something about the way we wash clothes.
But I have a similar setup at home, and I don't have this problem.
Brendan
http://www.xorph.com/
12 Apr 2007, 17:13 p.m.
I would try dryer sheets first unless you really can't stand them. They make things noticeably less staticky when I actually remove them from the dryer.
If nothing else, rubbing a used dryer sheet over clothes or hair is supposed to make them less likely to pick up a charge; results of my own experiences with that have been mixed.
mikepop
http://bedope.com
13 Apr 2007, 9:41 a.m.
Maybe try putting one of those rubber mats under your chair area?
Seth Schoen
http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/
15 Apr 2007, 11:44 a.m.
You could wear an antistatic bracelet the way some people who work on microelectronics do. There are some very convenient antistatic bracelets that you can wear all the time and intermittently connect and disconnect from a cable permanently attached to your workstation.
Do you use dryer sheets or fabric softener?