So I‘m trying to minimize the static electricity in my body because I‘m building a computer and don‘t want to short the motherboard. The outlets in my house are improperly connected and not grounded, so the only thing I could think of was grabbing a bar weight, stabbing it into the muddy ground just outside my window, and touching the bar after it‘s been stabbed into the ground. Will this discharge the static build-up in my body and send it into the earth? I‘m no electrician so I don‘t know if this works or not. Please help.
USE A SOFT GROUND: There is a difference between a hard ground and a soft ground. A HARD GROUND is DANGEROUS. You have described a hard ground. HARD GROUND: A hard ground is a direct connection to the ground of a house, ground of a car, or earth (or anything electrically connected to the earth). All buildings ground the neutral (white) wire of the 120 Volt AC (rms). This is accomplished by a copper electrode buried in the ground by the electrical meter. There is a green ground wire also connected to this ground, and that is sometimes connected to pipe sheathing around the wires. SOFT GROUND: To work on electronics, you must use a soft ground (not a hard ground). A soft ground diminishes the probability that your body will have a build up of static electricity. A soft ground is connected to a hard ground through a high resistance (typically about 1.8 Mega ohms to 35 Mega ohms). This shorts the high voltage without allowing much current to flow through your body. WHY USE A SOFT GROUND? You could get shocked if you are hard grounded, but cannot get shocked with a soft ground, because, by Ohm's Law, the high resistance prevents high current from flowing through your body. OTHER STATIC ELECTRICITY CONSIDERATIONS: You can use a soft-ground wrist strap or heel strap (which could lift off of the floor if you lift your heel up while sitting). The soft ground connects your wrist to a hard ground through a high resistance). The heel strap connects your foot to the floor, and if the floor is metal or special tiles that are made to conduct static electricity, you are soft grounded. Normal plastic floor tiles don't conduct electricity, and can generate static electricity. Don't put sensitive electronic components around regular cardboard (there is a special cardboard that conducts static electricity). Don't put plastics near the components, unless they are special plastics that conduct static electricity.
Just touch the metal casing (or any unpainted metal surface for that matter) around the computer before touching anything important. I'm not sure if a bar weight would be conductive enough to ground yourself (but it wouldn't hurt). Apparently you can buy anti-static wrist straps that ground you to a metal surface from Amazon, so that could be an option as well. Make sure you don't walk on a lot of carpet beforehand, and build on a tile or wood floor.
