To start off: I was explaining to my friend that I don’t have a grounding point in my house (plumbing is PVC, outlets are gcfi protected only, not allowed to drive a grounding rod into the ground, etc…) and that I’ve just been handling sensitive electronics with just luck and preparation (humidity, moisturizer, no synthetic clothing, etc…) all this time. He told me to just wire myself to a good, multimeter tested, grounding point in a car and that will discharge any built-up static electricity. I’m not smart enough to argue with him on this subject but that doesnt seem the safest. Would that work or should I just keep doing my method? My understanding is that chassis grounding is essentially replacing wires with the frame so the outcome would just be connecting myself to the negative terminal of a car battery.

Tldr: I’m explaining my lack of a grounding point at home for sensitive electronics and is advised by my friend to wire myself to a grounded point in a car to discharge built-up static electricity. However, I’m uncertain about the safety of this suggestion and questions whether my current method of handling electronics with precautions is sufficient.

Edit: lmao people are really getting hung up on the no grounded outlet part. Umm my best explanation I guess is that its an older house that had 2 prong outlets and was “updated” with gfci protected outlets afterwards think the breakers as well. My understanding is that its up to code but I’m not an electrician. As for the plumbing I’m sure there’s still copper somewhere but the majority has been updated to pvc over the years. Again it’s not my house I don’t want to go biting the hand that feeds me. Thank you though, haha

Edit #2: thank you all so much for the helpful advice, I really appreciate all of you!

    • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      10 months ago

      Yeah, I think so, too. Unless someone installed a grounding wire that dangles to the ground, a car chassis is mainly used as the return path to the negative side of the battery. You can sometimes skip the additional second wire since the chassis is metal and conductive. Additional benefit: if a hot wire becomes loose and touches the metal or water creeps in, it now blows a fuse instead of for example closing the circuit through the radio or another random component and frying that or starting a fire. And the real reason is, everything is connected and ‘grounded’ to the chassis meaning there is no static electricity buildup between different components of the car and they’re zapping each other. They’re all on the same potential level. But it just has to be relative to each other. Not the soil like a grounding rod in an AC system in your house.

      And I don’t quite get why people install these wires that dangle to the ground. The internet lists some benefits including something with lightning, improved fuel efficiency and sound quality. But I mean a lightning strike is more likely if you’re connected to the earth and it’s sort of a faraday cage anyways. And the rest sounds like snake-oil to me. There are lots of devices that supposedly increase fuel efficiency, but I’ve seen too many Mythbusters episodes to fall prey to that. There might be some use-cases for utility vehicles that I don’t know anything about, but my car definitely isn’t electrically connected to the road.