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Working on electronics in low humidity environment?

E

EnderW

[H]F Junkie
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My indoor humidity is around 20% right now which is typical during the winter. I was talking with my brother about this and he said at the NASA lab he works at, they require humidity to be > 30% before any circuit boards or similar electronics can be touched. Even with their ESD bracelets, suits, and chairs.

So now I'm wondering if I should be concerned about working on my stuff as I don't want to fry any of this expensive hardware (especially DRAM!). I've always kinda blown off ESD concerns, just tap my finger on something metal before touching a motherboard but perhaps I was too cavalier?

Curious what your thoughts and experiences are.
 
Yes, you should be concerned. Surely you've noticed that when it's really dry, you get static shocks easily? Just moving in the wrong sort of clothes can charge you up to kV levels. Where I live it's normally damp enough that I don't have to care about ESD. In the winter it can get down to 40%, which is much higher than where you are, but still low enough to make me cautious when working on anything electronic.
 
I usually don't worry, but it's rarely below 40% in my house, 60-80% outside. If it's very low, get a humidifier, or spray some water on your clothes.
 
I have only had one instance of static killing something and that was 25+ years ago, a K62-450. my place is at ~20% from Nov to Apr, i just ground myself through a plugged in psu. not a prob since.
 
Mr Evil said:
Yes, you should be concerned. Surely you've noticed that when it's really dry, you get static shocks easily? Just moving in the wrong sort of clothes can charge you up to kV levels. Where I live it's normally damp enough that I don't have to care about ESD. In the winter it can get down to 40%, which is much higher than where you are, but still low enough to make me cautious when working on anything electronic.
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I have noticed that before but it doesn't seem to happen with any frequency lately even at 20%
 
Lately I've been making a point to touch my main rig before I sit down to discharge static thanks to this cold snap. Something in my work setup doesn't like it and sometimes touching my mouse first makes one of my screens go blank. Not sure if it's my Pluggable Thunderbolt dock, work issued Mac, or what. So touch my rig first and discharge it. It's got a standard steel chassis and it's grounded through the PSU.
 
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