ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Trade Practice - Why 'Flip' the Recep?

I've never heard of flipping the receptacle upside down to indicate a switched receptacle. In theory it seems like a good idea, though. See, you really do learn something everyday!

trollog -
"how many of you put the neutral on the top when mounting a receptacle sideways?<<

I do.. it't the way I was taught way back when and I agreed with the rationale behind it and still do, and its just shop practice where I work anyway.."

I do that way also, as it was the way I was taught. I'm sure I asked "why", but I don't remember the "why" at the moment. What is the rational behind it?

The rationale behind having the ground pin (or neutral blade) on the top is that anything that falls and hit a pertially engaged plug would hit somthing that was grounded and not cause a spark/fire. Unfortunately, I've never seen anything fall onto the metal parts of a plug and remain perfectly balanced there until someone notices it...so THERE!!

The rationale behind having the ground pin on the bottom is that on a partially disengaged plug, the ground pin would be the very last thing to disconnect, thus the load would always be grounded as long as there was even a tenuous power connection. However, I've never seen a plug that was that far out unless it fell the rest of the way out shortly thereafter...so THERE!!

There have been several attempts at requiring a specific orientation in the NEC and they have always been voted down. Before I end up inadvertently start a flame war; I was in an office that was wired by an EC with a ironclad "ground pin on top" rule. Every vending machine and all of the copiers/printers that had angled plugs had this goofy 'rooster-tail' where the plug shot the cord straight up the wall, only to turn around to feed the load. Quite a few of these ended up with the cord duct taped to the wall to keep it from pulling the plug out by its own weight.

I don't care which way the receptacle is mounted...but I can't understand why some folks take an almost militant position that any orientation is absolutely required for every single instance.

...and yes, the quads in my shop are installed with the ground up on one duplex and the ground down on the other to accomodate the angled plugs and just to make life easier overall.

The one switched socket in my flat is brown, to distinguish it from the white ones all over the place.

They're all mounted sideways, however.

I have flipped receptacles to accomodate right angle plugs.

Sometimes I wish they made it so that all right angle 3-pin plugs can rotate 360 degrees. There are some pigtails (1-foot lengths of extension cord) that can do that.

Would certainly solve THAT proble.

Well said.

If it's a horizontal receptacle outdoors, I prefer placing the hot on top, so it's less likely to be contacted by water within the box.

As for the szwitched receptacle, I prefer selling the customer on the idea of split-wiring the entire room, especially in bedrooms and living rooms, where table and floor lamps are the norm.

I install all the receptacles in my home with the ground up. It is an easy way for me to keep track of where I have addressed the often crappy installation work by the previous owner.

I find it funny how easily we all fall into the trap of calling something "upside down" even when we know there is no definition of right side up. I am glad that the code making panels have rejected all attempts at standardizing receptacle orientation in order for us to do what is best for each particular receptacle installation.

About a year ago I was in Chicago to attend an NFPA 70E seminar for electrical safety in the workplace. The presenter first pointed out that the extension cord that the hotel gave him for his projector so he could teach about electrical safety was damaged, with parts of the outer jacket missing. Ironic, huh? Not too long into his talk he also pointed out that all the receptacles in the room were mounted sideways (not sure if hot or neutral was up). Before the seminar he had done some checking. The ground up/ground down issue had been vigourously discussed by the powers that be in Chicago, the result being a local code, at least for hotels, that recepts must be sideways!

I bought an older house two years ago that had all receptacles on the ground floor mounted 'wrong', ground up. The previous owner was not a handyman so I chalked it up to his 'foolishness'. (This was before I learned that there are legitimate(?) reasons for doing it both ways.) The pre-sale electrical inspection revealed that the ground location really didn't matter, because the circuits feeding them were only two conductor, and the ground pin was floating in mid-air. The kicker was, presumably in order to bring this older house up to current safety codes, he had installed GFCI receptacles in the bathrooms. These didn't have grounding conductors attached either, so were useless as a protection device. They only worked when you pressed the test button.

My mom used to be a cleaning woman. She walked into her scheduled clean one morning to a house full of smoke. No body else home, she grabbed the dog and called 911. Turns out the owner started the dryer on her way out. The metal cover plate finally worked its way loose on the 220 dryer outlet, dropped down for a phase-phase short across the plug blades. Don't know if it was FPE breaker (come to think of, that would be useful information) but it didn't trip. Plug orientation may have helped this almost disaster.