How to Test the Static Electricity in Carpet

Static electricity creates a painful zap when you touch a charged object. While you can resolve this issue by touching a piece of metal, such as a car key, the problem becomes an annoyance after multiple occurrences. If you have older carpet and low humidity in your home, your carpet tends to generate more static electricity. To fix static electricity problems, raise the humidity level in your house and spray carpets with an antistatic coating. By testing the amount of static electricity in your carpet, you know how many volts you charge when simply walking across the floor to get that painful shock.

Instructions

1. • 1

     Turn on the electrometer. Set the reading to zero if not already showing zero. Most meters come with a mechanical adjust screw.

   • 2

     Stick a long screw into the carpet as a ground source. Connect one of the probes or clips to the ground source. Hold the other clip in your hand.

   • 3

     Rub your feet back and forth on the carpet to generate static electricity. The electrometer reads the voltage and shows on the screen.