Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Ok we have at this time only one problem with Canada:sneaky: , it’s a little problem but it hurts us and no matter where you are and at what time it gets you, Static!!!!!!!:eek:

Ok I know it’s because it’s very dry, which by the way we love coming from Scotland where it rains 24/7 or at least seemed that way.
But my hair and the kids is on a constant lets wave at every one that’s passing, and every time we get out the car, go shopping or even today, Kissing them off to school we are getting shocked.

I am not talking little tingles here but whopping big bangs when ever we kiss the kids touch any thing off the shelves or even get out the car….

Please help, what things can we do?, use? maybe even eat? to stop this happing to us…. :)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

http://www.static-sol.com/articles/static_shocks.htm

Everything you ever wanted to know about static electricity but were afraid to ask :lol:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Great link Shears:thumbup: , will also make the kids read up on this as at this time they see it as a sport, Who can shock the most contest....:mad: but I still need help with the limp, flyaway hair:confused:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Can it be something you get used to? .... or maybe after a while you dehydrate sufficiently for it not to be so much a problem?? :ohmy:

It's just that when we first came here I too found it dreadful, to the point of be afraid to touch anything metal at all..... now I get the occasional shock and they don't seem so bad.

One good tip when you are getting out of the car, is to touch the metalwork with your car key as you get out ..... you hear a "sizzle" at the key, but usually don't feel a thing! :thumbup:

Also try to gradually change your wardrobe to get rid of man-made clothing .... all that synthetic stuff sure builds up the charge! :blink:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

addendum:

Gas stations here have notices on the pumps warning you to touch the car to discharge the static before attemtping to fill up.... I presume it's a real risk!

Recently a nurse who had just applied alcohol hand rub to her hands reached to touch an 02 cylinder while her hands were still fumy, and the resulting spark ignited the fumes in the oxygen rich atmosphere!

The nurse suffered minor burns, and the patient had to be treated for shock (traumatic, rather than electric!) :eek:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Yes, I suffered really badly when we first got here too.
I think it was made worse when I wore my crocs as my indoor shoes.
I touch the car with my key when I get out too. :)

Things do seem to have got better now, 5 months later. Having said that, my daughter and i often have painful goodbyes! Lol. :ohmy:

Hope things get better.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

A "High Five" is a good way of discharging, and if you slap eachother hard enough, it is quite hard to tell if you have had a shock as well! :rofl:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I'll remember that one!

Thaks Mo! :rofl:

Hope you and yours are keeping well.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Lil lad is still porrly-sick.:( I just tucked him into bed and his temp is 39.3! This morning it was 38.6 and this afternoon I took him to the docs where they measured it at 36.7 :confused: He hd not taken any anti-pyretics, and I was quite hopeful that he was improving, but now it's swung right back up there again. :blink:

He does have a bit of a cough now, so the general concensus is that it is a flu-bug. ..... but after 6 days, I would expect his fever to be improving really. :unsure:

The rest of us are fine .... how are you and yours?

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Good shampoo/conditioner(not the drug store crap) and avoid the flatiron. Straightened hair holds charge like nobody's business in winter.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

No idea how to stop it happening.................I suffered with it loads when we first got here but it doesn't seem so bad now...................wait till you go shopping :ohmy: bloody carts hurt like hell!! :eek:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I've made reference to this before - it is so not funny sometimes ! And we've only done two-week stints at a time. It's something I've been seriously concerned about - we're quite a tactile family !! I've been reading the thread about the humidifiers with interest too. Do many people go this route?

It is interesting to hear that people's experiences of the shock treatment seems to diminish somewhat over time. Hurrah !

Can someone tell me if this is why there are so many wooden floors ?! Or is that just a practical/fashion reason (which I like but when they are everywhere, I think it is quite cold). Is a wool carpet OK versus a more man-made fibre content?

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Apparently true magnetic north is placed directly over canada no I didnt know that either ,until someone enlightened me ,could be the reason for all that static :)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Get a humidifier(sp?). I was in a recording studio in Toronto last year just around this time of year as well. We had some pretty serious issues with static. The building had automatic humidifier but with winter chills the heating was up and the rooms got very very dry. They had to up the humidity in the rooms.

So - get a humidifier at home. It does help.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Put your hand on the top of the cat door before your foot touches the ground - this will stop the shock at your hand and discharge the static through your shoes, you won't feel a thing. Been doing this for years.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Interesting point, at home in the UK we have a dehumidifier as the moisture at this time of year gets quite bad on the windows especially after cooking and running baths.

Didn't realise it was such a problem in Canada, we noticed it whilst on holiday recently and it became a bit of a joke, nobody wanting to be first to push the elevator call button in the hotel.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I've noticed I've been zapping the dog when I go to stroke him sometimes!:ohmy:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

love this thread! I recently went back to Canada and noticed the shocking too... and I'm Canadian, never noticed it to be that bad when I lived there. Some of the things that was used in my Canadian home (especially during winter) was a humidifier that was near the top of the house on the stair landing.

Something not mentioned yet... anti-static Bounce (or Downy) dryer sheets... toss 2 sheets in (for a full load) at the start of the dryer cycle.

People say the liquid fabric softner stuff works just as well but I think its a load of tosh... we use the liquid stuff in our wash here every load & when our UK cleaned clothes arrived in Canada we were getting loads of shocks. :blink:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Daedra, where have you been hiding, did you run out of things to say?

Anyway you're right about the bounce or dryer sheets. We didn't use these and when i took my fleece out of the dryer, wow it clung to me like mad, so putting it on was fun.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

It all comes down to humidity. Central humidifier at home, room humidifier at work if you have too. The cars a problem though, could try snow in the footwell, but your windows might steam up. Touching the car with the keys to discharge through the metal helps with the pain...just dont hold only the rubber nubby bit eh;) Natural fibers rather than artificial will reduce static too.


Welcome to Canada eh:)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Strangely enough, we don't seem to suffer from this too much apart from the occasional small spark from the car and wall screws.

There is one wall in the work though that if you touch the edge it nearly fries you! I just put that down to a poorly insulated live wire hidden behind the plaster though. ;)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Me? Run out of things to say? Never! :rofl:

Must confess havent been keeping up with BE of late as I discovered Yahoo Games has a version of Yaztee online. One of the few games I can sometimes win at (which makes it very addictive) ;)

Ahh I miss having washer & dryer laundry facilities & an actual seperate 'laundry' room... its time consuming keeping up on the laundry of 2 adults here, not attractive to guests seeing your delicates hung up on a drying contraption in the front room either :lol:

Another trick my mum used to do is to put a used sheet of Bounce or Downy in with the stored seasonal clothes so that they smell nice and fresh when taken out after months of storage.;)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I ZZAAPPP my OH frequently :sneaky: :D


Got a real shocker from a clothes rail in a shop recently, nearly gave up and went home :ohmy: .

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

My girls suffered with static hair - both looking like they had constantly seen a ghost.
I have recently changed their Shampoo and Conditioner to Pantene "Winter". They now don't have a problem.:D

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

But how does the cat feel?

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Thank you, I knew it couldn't just be me!

I have been here since July and an sick and tired of getting shocks off just about everything. I dread opening shop doors and getting out of the car and try to do so with my coat sleeve over my hand.

My hubby thought I was making it up until the other day when we were in a furniture store and I touched a metal screen and got such a belt that he heard it from several feet away. I really does hurt.

He keeps blaming my nylon knickers, but I swear they are cotton!

BTW. We have a dehumidifier in the house and I rarely have a problem, although I had never really thought about till now!

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

get a humidifier , definately helps with the hair!!
i was going slightly crazy with mine until we got one
its all down to the extreme cold outside and the dry air inside
we picked one up for about 40 dollars at walmart

Clare:)

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Dehumidifiers are only to be used during hot summer months... humidifiers to be used during dry (aka keep your windows & doors shut) winter months... most homes & places of work in Canada are heated by Hydro electricity, which means electric heaters that zap the humidity out of the air.

Also make sure you use dryer sheets when doing your clothes washing, otherwise the cling/static build up reaches enormous potential with all the friction going on in the dryer.

As previously stated, try to avoid synthetic fabrics like Polyester & Nylon (unless low percentages on the labels) as they have a higher capacity to hold a charge.

Man this thread brought me back to my youth!!! I was 11 years old when I moved to Canada from the South Pacific & I never experienced static shock to THAT intensity until Canada... it can really hurt!!:D :blink:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

:rofl: the kids see this as a sport now, lets see how much charge they can get up and then let it off with a light touch to your face when your not expecting it, the @/?* :huh: Well I am on the look out for that shampoo and will make sure when I`m driving I use the keys, then make sure i`m not the first out if I don`t have them. for the cat thing alas no cat but will the kids hamster do:p

Sutherlands

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I hope thats not true. Most homes are heated with gas and oil, Hydro is the single most expensive way to heat.


The humidity is low not cos of "zapping", but because the outside air is too cold to hold much moisture, its simple physics. Even in oil and gas heating where moisture is a combustion byproduct, its not that hot gas that heats the house, it all goes through a heat exchanger, heating up the same old air an electric heater does.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Too right. Any "moisture" in the air fell to the ground last night. There's about half a meter of it on my drive right now.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

OK I admit I'm not in the industry myself and not making blatant claims of knowing more then I do. So I will correct that previous statement to say that in my experience most of the homes/flats and businesses I have worked at during my 16 years in Montreal were heated by Electric baseboards which I *thought* meant it was Hydro.
Upon further investigation though, I see that it is not necesarily so. Regardless of that though, I maintain that I have not known any person (or myself recieved) any other fuel bill other then Hydro Quebec. And I have lived in 5 different apartment/flat complexes and a detached house during those 16 years. However, it's not something you usually ask people about in general conversation so I may very well just been ignorant of the fact *lol* :D

In any case, for a long and boring read (trust me, I skimmed through it and now my head hurts :huh: ) see the published report of the survey across Canada done in 2003 on energy consumption link.

Here

P.S to skip right to the relevant bit, its on page 20 of 40 with household heating breakdowns (chart 26) :p

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Looks like Hydro preference is only a quebec thing...something to do with that dirt cheap 1969 priced hydro they signed up for from Churchill Falls maybe?. (That deal is still good until 2041!)

from page 21 of the same report:
"For Canada as a whole, more households used natural gas to run their main heating system (46 percent) than any other energy source (see Chart 29). Other sources used by households fortheir main heating system were electricity, used by 33 percent of households; oil, used by 9 percent; and wood, used by 3 percent. Additionally, 6 percent of households used a combination of two sources of energy to power their main heating system. Over 50 percent of these dual-heating-source households used a combination of electricity and natural gas."

stats canada says something similar

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/prim72.htm

Note the residential final demand at the bottom, and factor in that all houses use hydro, but not necessarily for heating.

I agree though that in Apartment complexes etc Baseboards are the norm (cheaper to install and arrange individual metering), but detached houses are another thing across the rest of canada.

Not that it matters, heat source has very little if anything to do with static build up.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Any apartment complex we lived in prior to moving into a house was heated by baseboard heaters but they were not electric they were hot water. Heat is usually included in the rent for most apartment dwellers so it would be not unusual to receive only a hydro bill.

A large number of homes on Vancouver Island are heated using electric baseboard heaters. These numbers are dropping in newer homes as natural gas becomes more readily available on the island.

Cheers
Steve

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

What can I say to Iain & Steve except... I find it all very SHOCKING ;)

Couldnt resist sorry!! :rofl:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Good one. :rofl::rofl:

If I remember correctly an easy way to tell if you had electric baseboard heaters versus hot water radiators.

Electric have a thermostat control either in each room or on the heater itself. Hot water radiator heat usually has only one thermostat for the apartment.

Cheers
Steve

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

Interesting you say that because last winter we go so many electric shocks that we were scared to touch anyone/anything. Some of the shocks were so large, they were painful.

This winter we have only had one or two very small ones (no longer see the blue spark jump across the gap!). I had assumed that this was because we got a lot more snow than last year. But we could be getting used to them (I hope!!).

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Just to throw a spanner in your workings out ..... we had "hot water radiator heaters" in our UK home, along with most people, I think.

We had one central thermostat in our hallway, then each radiator had its own temperature control actually on the heater.
This made it very easy to turn the heat up or down in any given room, which of course we cannot do here as it's warm air heating.

This is a pain actually, as if we put our lovely log effect gas fire on to cosy up the living room, (or if I do a lot of oven-cooking), it effects the thermostat which is in the dining area, and the heating turns off, so every other room in the house, including our nice new basement, turns rapidly fridge-like! :blink: :huh: :unsure:

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

The previous place I lived at here in UK - I'd agree. This place is dry and dusty regardless if the heating is on or not. (And very cold when it's not). Sure bathroom and kitchen steam up when cooking/showering bu the rest - not a good house for anyone with asthma.

Ferry between Finland and Sweden used to be a nightmare for me. Little bolts of lightning between finger and button. Blame it on all the carpets.

I still have an issue with cars. I generate static as it is naturally.

Re: Help it HURTS US!!!!!
 

I used to zapp a horse of mine. Once so badly that she jumped straight in to a wall and looked at me as if I was a 6k volt electric fence. This happens still but I have learnt that certain clothes and material has a greater chance of turning me in to an electrical generator than others.

I generate an enormous amount of static, for some reason. To the point that my pager /back in those days) would simply short-cut and turn itself off! I had to take the battery out and put it back in to reboot it. Eventually gave it to my sis who never had a problem with it.

The studio I mentioned earlier had an issue with static. But it was more apparent when I touched anything as all the speakers in the room would have a loud crack if I had moved around and then touched my laptop, which was only connected to the mains. It got to the point that the engineers asked me to stop typing as every touch of every key generated static noise on the recording.