Our company has moved in a new office recently.
The office is quite big space and our zone is separated with glass walls with metal frames:
Employees are sitting at tables that have cheap (ikea-like) wooden top and metal legs. My setup is iMac (metal body), external monitor (plastic), iMac connected to external monitor and also I have a metal dock station for iPhone (also metal).
So main problem is that we are constantly being zapped by static electricity by:
- door knob (metal)
- metal components of electric devices
- whiteboard with metal frame (hanging on the wall)
Recently we tried to solve this with humidifier. It was a small relief. Not a huge progress.
Few cases:
- Before humidifier even handshake literally every single time zapped
us with static electricity - Yesterday, I was alone in the office lately, I noticed lightning,
during attaching iPhone to the dock. Lightning appeared before actual
connection and had a length of 1cm estimately. After this, my
external monitor went black for about 3 seconds.
I checked the voltage in plugs. It's exactly 220 (standard in Russia).
Also I am not sure about grounding in the office building. Seems like it's absent.
So the question is what we can do, to avoid zapping everywhere and avoid spoilage of electrical appliance?
Best Answer
You can buy an outlet tester to check whether ground is properly wired (in that outlet).
If you're being zapped by a whiteboard hanging on a wall, then most likely it is static electricity generated when you walk across the floor. You didn't specify but I'm guessing the floor is a plastic laminate?
You could put down anti-static floor mats. For example under each desk. This would keep you from building up charge as you move around. Running mats across the entire floor may prove cost prohibitive.