Electricity

Bzzt! I keep getting zapped at home by static electricity discharge, some days so frequently that I feel like I'm taking part in some sort of Pavlovian experiment. I get charged up with static while shuffling around the house and then get a small shock when I touch something metallic (e.g. light switchplate screws, washing machine/tumble dryer, metal blinds, girlfriend and occasionally even my laptop). Sometimes there's even a visible spark and an audible crackle.

I think that understanding something is the first step in addressing it, so yesterday morning I decided to do some research. Initial results suggest that the static buildup only happens to when I wear socks and/or slippers, and only when I'm upstairs (which has different carpeting to the downstairs). Although my fleece crackles with static when I take it off it doesn't seem to be a factor in this case, so it looks like the buildup is principally due to the interaction between the upstairs carpet and what I'm wearing on my feet.

Looking on the web I read that the accumulation of static charges by clothing or footwear is most likely to happen in dry atmospheres such as heated houses in winter. Humidification and ionization of the air might help but seem a bit impractical in this case - the suggestion of wearing cotton or linen rather than wool, silk or synthetic materials seems more realistic. Or I could walk around barefoot, however this has its own problems in the winter.

I suppose that the alternative to prevention is mitigation. One suggestion was to turn off light switches with your knuckles to minimise the pain of any discharge (I try to present the flat of my hand at the moment) or else touching the metal surface with a key or other metallic object so that any spark doesn't directly come from your skin (I hadn't thought of that before).

But I think that I'd rather find a way to stop it altogether, before I train myself to instinctively avoid touching all the things listed above (especially the girlfriend).