Question Treadmills and static electricity on ungrounded outlet

[tanteimetal]

I recently moved into a house (rental) with ungrounded outlets (little reader device said open ground when I tested them). I own a treadmill and put it in a carpeted room on top of a rubber matt and connected it to a surge protector. When I run on it, I constantly get shocked when I touch the heart rate sensor if I have been running for a bit. If I am standing on the sides of the treadmill and not on the belt, no shock. To help this, I bought an anti-static strap and hooked it onto a metal screw on the leg and I stopped getting shocked while running.

So this maybe be a dumb question but, what is happening to the static electricity being generated? Is it going to that screw? Is it going into me? Is it dangerous? If it is going into the screw, how is it dissipating if the treadmill is not connected to a grounded outlet and it doesn't seem like the leg touches any metal connected to the motor? I was curious about this because I've built a few PCs and used anti-static bands, but had always read that you need to plug the PSU into a grounded outlet for it to work properly.

 

[Ralston18]

It is dangerous.

Get off the treadmill, unplug it.

Get a qualified electrician to check out the outlets and the electrical system as a whole.

And also the treadmill.

The current may be flowing back into the neutral wire. However, if that path (or what whatever path is being used) is broken or changed then the current will go somewhere else. Maybe through you and then things will end badly.