Physically, metaphysically and metaphorically-wise, by all means, it can’t hurt anything and will yield peace of mind. I think this really means I worked through my trauma. thanks all. ![]()
If that is a tungsten lamp in the lava lamp that sounds a most unlikely cause, as the static charge is high voltage but minute current (if otherwise your finger would have been burnt, at the very least!) If always at switch on it is far more likely to be the mains inrush current which is very high in tungsten bulbs - the reason they fail far more often on switch on than while on. Is the lamp suited to the task, being in an enclosed space with the lava lamp using it as a heat source more than light, possibly weakening the filament far more rapidly than in the open air and significantly shortening its life? And is it the right voltage rating - and possibly worth checking that your mains voltag isn’t abnormally high.
Thanks - this is useful information.
That makes it seem more likely that the bulbs keep blowing because Mathmos may have designed their expensive, proprietary bulbs to blow easily in order to sell more of them.
I found wearing leather soled shoes helps with static charge.
There is a phenomenon known as electrical hypersensitivity. As well as being prone to various physical and even psychological effects associated with electric fields sufferers can have a profound effect on electrical equipment that they touch or even just come into proximity with. Blown light bulbs, malfunctioning TV sets or computers and even failing street lighting when just walking down a road have all been reported. I wonder…
That’s not something I plan to do in my house.
Although I did previously wear Church slippers for many years, and they had leather soles.
Barefoot likely best! Static buid-up on a person typically can be caused by movement of certain types of clothing fabric, and/or footware and carpets. Insulating footware prevents it draining to ground. Dry air is far worse than when there is high humidity.
Some of those things I simply don’t believe!
Well I’m not convinced myself, but these things have been reported and apparently there is/was even a hospital department somewhere in southern England dedicated to the treatment of sufferers. Run by a consultant with a special interest and expertise in the phenomenon apparently. But it’s one of those things that’s rare and not widely understood or possibly even recognised. The fact that there was an NHS hospital department dealing with cases seems to add credence to it as a real phenomenon though.
Mmm
Spontaneous Human Combustion. ![]()
Indeed - caused by contact (or, more effectively, friction) between dissimilar materials. The degree of charging can vary hugely and is dependent on the combination of materials, not an individual material. So, walking barefoot on a polyester carpet might cause very little charging, but wearing woollen socks on the same carpet could result in significant charging.
Google triboelectric series if this is of interest.
Sounds like a great band!
Roger
Too hot to handle. ![]()
And yet too cold to hold
Loki-wife certainly has some of those abilities, as does our good friend Albus Dumbledore.
A GFCI will not help you in this situation, GFCIs do not measure ground current at all, instead they measure the balance of current between live and neutral, if the live current is not equal to the neutral current (on a class A by > 5mA) then that current must be going somewhere else - a GFCI doesn’t care where it’s going it just assumes it COULD be going through you or your kids iPhone chargers in the bathtub. So if you delivered a static zap to the case of your equipment that you think caused the damage (which I very much doubt), the GFCI couldn’t care less because it wasn’t current that it was supplying or monitoring, not only that, but if this was due to ESD then a domestic GFCI wouldn’t be able to react in time anyway.
Further to @lozjones response, what does “legit” mean in your comment mean? If that is an earth (ground) leakage tester then all it will have confirmed is that leakage to earth (ground) above the set max current will trip the protective device.
Were there any thunderstorms in your region at the time? One possible cause of damage to an amp, resulting in damage to speakers, and infinitely more likely than static buildup from your body, could have been a high voltage spike on the mains from a lightning strike somewhere connected to the local supply grid. It that happened as you approached the amp it could account for the spark as well, though the spark could have been coincidence arising from static.
it is legit according to my wall plug tester, as I mentioned. No thunderstorms. guess again.
Seems very odd. Personally I wouldn’t assume static from my body was the cause until I’d ruled out all more likely explanations, but if you don’t want to pursue any other possibilities then that of course is your prerogative. Given no thunderstorm then if it was me I would enquire of neighbours as to whether they had experienced anything, also maybe ask the electricity company. But you’re not me so up to you. As for the “legit” result, I am still unclear if that is just confirming correct earth (ground) leakage operation, or whether it also confirmed basic connection info like live and neutral are correctly connected, or whether perhaps it also tells you if voltage is within spec, or anything else like whether there is excessive DC on the mains, but unless it is a monitor that was operating and recording at the time what it won’t tell you is whether there was a spike on th mains at the time of the incident.
Bystander, it’s an n=1 deal. How can one truly advance understanding with just that?
I shared this mostly because of the sudden grief and divine comedy aspect of the event, not to seek ways of preventing acts of god in the future.