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!
When I had my circuit breaker replaced and went to 200A service a few years ago, we had to have 2 ground rods put in (maybe we reused the old one, I can’t remember) plus a wire following our copper water supply lines until just past the meter. Inspector actually made them redo that last one because it stopped just shy of the meter. Maybe there are other ways of going it, but actual honest-to-goodness grounding is also a thing here.
You are correct. I edited my comment with a note pointing out where I lapsed. Ground is grounded by way of bonding to neutral and neutral being grounded. It’s just not a dedicated grounding circuit going straight to a nail in the ground.
FYI, on many Lemmy clients, there is a format option to do
strike throughs on text, to mark text which has been revised but isn’t being fully removed, to provide context.