Every time I touch something in here I get zapped... like BAD. As annoying as that is in itself I'm worried about my gear. How do you guys keep static electricity down and avoid damage to equipment? All I can think of is a humidifier. BTW... it's electric baseboard heat in here. Cheers.

They make floor mats specifically for dissipating static electricity buildup.

Da' ain't cheep though. :)

But well worth it if it's a situation like yours.

Hmmm $100 bucks for a floor mat ... or $3,000 for a DAW and 4 days of heartache setting it back up. Hmmm? :-)

I always discharge myself on a metal cabinet such as the chassy of a rack mount compressor or mic pre. Something solid state like that is relatively safe to discharge yourself on. I've blown so many things up over the years just by touching them, it's not even funny. I blew up a $7,000 copier one time just by walking up to it and tapping the touchscreen to wake it up out of sleep/energy saver mode.

Of course, you have to make sure you have proper ground at your new place. A rule of thumb is less than .3VAC between Neutral and Ground. Technically there should be none, but there is an accepted tolerance level, at least there was when I was working on sensitive electronics. .3 was what all the manufacturers say is the limit when you check the power source for copiers.

If you are using a power strip, check the ground at it's outlets. The #1 grounding problem I saw was power strips that start going bad, they have a tendency to cause the ground to go bad and I've seen them go as high as 5VAC from N - G.

Can ya tell I'm bored this morning and rambling on? LOL!

I really should go do something constructive. :)

Good luck with that!

hmm... well I bought a fancy Belkin surge protection/power conditioning power bar. Hope that will cut it. Can't afford any fancy new mats but I do have a roll of that rubber underpadding for laminate floors. I was planning on cutting some of that up and putting the pieces under my gear to reduce vibrations so maybe that will help. Gonna have to really get into the habit of touching the screws on outlet plates or something. Grrr... why does everything have to be so whack? :-/

Have a good day, bub. I should get back to my war on dust. 

It's just that time of year. I get sparks when I put my key in the lock sometimes. And touching an elevator button after having walked on carpet? Zap. Can't pet kitties either. 

Yup,

A humidifier and watch what kinda clothes you wear.

Same thing here....

low humidity and dragging my butt outta the chair charges me up every time. 

So it's good practice to find something grounded.... in my case that is the chassis of an under counter light in the studio. Or the on/off toggle switch on my amp.... or anything else grounded. I get that little spark and then it's OK to proceed touching the laptop, the DAW, and anything else connected to the DAW.

I've forgotten plenty of times and nothing has happened but it really only takes one time to punch a hole in the barrier of one silicon transistor to screw things up royally. Surge protectors work on the power coming in from the wall.... not on the surge you introduced into the mic moving back down the cable towards the inputs..... 

Make it a habit to discharge during spark season. 

hmm... well I bought a fancy Belkin surge protection/power conditioning power bar. Hope that will cut it

 
I would think that the location has bad wiring that is also not grounded properly.
 
I am not an electrician, however, and can not say I know enough about it! ... but I imagine that situations like this do not get better, and probably spend 50/100 to discuss this with an electrician that knows his poop!

Herb has a great point,

Our PMEL Lab for equipment had a copper plates grounded and each entry used to discharge (by touching) prior to entering the calibration rooms.

There are two coax connectors on the Belkin power dealy that seem to do a good job of destaticamizing myself. I think I'll use those. Gonna have to get a humidifier though.

I got one zap yesterday that went through my jeans and long johns into my knee that felt like I got tap by a doctors medical hammer. Crazy.

And moshie... I don't think the power is bad in here. I was just referring to bub's comment about power bars screwing up grounds. This is a rather fancy one that comes with equipment insurance and everything. I think up to $10,000.

That's a little more than a friendly static zap there Beepster. :)

If ya have access to a volt meter, I'd check out that neutral to ground voltage. :)