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Is it dumb to connect yourself to a car's grounding point (lemmy.today)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Disclaimer: I am not an electrical engineer, I am just an idiot on the internet.

I think this would be fine if it's just a matter of discharging static electricity. If static is building up on your body, touching the car frame will redistribute that energy across both yourself and the car frame. By that point, there's not enough potential energy in your body to damage whatever electronics you're working on.

Also, if you happen to be working on computers, they're pretty damn resistant to static shocks. Better safe than sorry of course, but it's hard to kill a computer with static. ElectroBoom and LTT made a pretty good video about that a while back.