To start off: I was explaining to my friend that I don’t have a grounding point in my house (plumbing is PVC, outlets are gcfi protected only, not allowed to drive a grounding rod into the ground, etc…) and that I’ve just been handling sensitive electronics with just luck and preparation (humidity, moisturizer, no synthetic clothing, etc…) all this time. He told me to just wire myself to a good, multimeter tested, grounding point in a car and that will discharge any built-up static electricity. I’m not smart enough to argue with him on this subject but that doesnt seem the safest. Would that work or should I just keep doing my method? My understanding is that chassis grounding is essentially replacing wires with the frame so the outcome would just be connecting myself to the negative terminal of a car battery.
Tldr: I’m explaining my lack of a grounding point at home for sensitive electronics and is advised by my friend to wire myself to a grounded point in a car to discharge built-up static electricity. However, I’m uncertain about the safety of this suggestion and questions whether my current method of handling electronics with precautions is sufficient.
A highly-conductive metal sheet would only work fine if you were a latex balloon engineer and there were no electric sources – batteries or mains – involved in your work. In that scenario, the sheet would be very effective at draining static charge from the balloon.
But for electrical engineering, a large sheet of metal might as well be a puddle of salt water: the risk of electric shorts is too high, whether that be shorting out the pins on the bottom side of a PCB, or providing a path for a loose mains AC wire to go directly to ground, or indirectly through a human…
So there has to be a balance between the need to drain static charge, and the need to keep devices from shorting out and also protecting people. Even mats aren’t perfect, since a mat isn’t terribly heat-resistant and could melt when doing hot-air reflow work. As I mentioned, my company invested a great deal into their lab, because they were seeing one-off failures of five figure prototypes. So it made sense to spend a lot to improve the lab.
But for domestic work, depending on how your devices are valued, it might be sufficient to use a sturdy wood desk, a wrist strap to its metal frame, a humidifier if your space is very dry (eg < 30% RH), and maybe don’t wear wool or socks while doing electronics work. In the end, ESD damage is a statistics game and we try to improve the odds where it makes sense.