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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
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ppb:
Welcome to ECN!
Back in the day, there were a few 'tamper resistant' items used in day care facilities. Yes, the expensive TR device, and there were covers that had various 'slide' tricks.

To the best of my knowledge, the 'covers' have not been acceptable for quite some years.

As to the stories for ground up, there have been a few. One I remember was while on a service call for a 'shorted circuit' after about a half hour of checking....I found the cause. The bed in a kids room was against a wall sideways, there was a zip cord plugged into the outlet, and a quarter coin was across the hot/neutral. The HO tried to reset the CB a few times before he called. It would not have mattered if the grd was up or down, but it's a trip I have not forgot.



John
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
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From an outside perspective I have to say it's a pity NEMA plugs or sockets can't be modified for more safety easily - recessing them would make wall wart type transformers impossible to use and sheathed pins seem impractical considering some plugs already have very soft prongs that bend easily. I suppose modifying the plugs (while keeping them compatible with existing sockets) would make more sense since extension leads and appliances tend to be replaced more often than fixed devices. Since Australian plugs have very similar dimensions it should be possible to produce sufficiently sturdy NEMA 1-15, 5-15 etc. plugs with partially sleeved prongs!

Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 264
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Originally Posted by twh
Originally Posted by Texas_Ranger
My favourite explanation was that the live pin of a horizontally installed socket should be up in case the room floods
As I recall, there was once a Canadian rule, or a Sask. amendment, that required the neutral up on outdoor receptacles so that any debris that fell into the receptacle box would land on the neutral terminal. Around here, we're in more danger from falling dirt than rising water.



Never seen that as a code rule or amendment but many people I work with state it as gospel. The only time I have ever seen anything in writing was in the 2006 to 2010 Saskatchewan Electrical Code Simplified for residential wiring. There's a very brief statement about mounting plugs in the horizontal plane with the hot terminals pointing down to avoid nuisance tripping if moisture gathers on top of the plug. It also states that this is not a code requirement only a suggestion.


A malfunction at the junction
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Dwayne
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
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When you look at the cost vs benefit, we should just leave the 5-15 alone. There are billions of them around the US and Canada and you only hear a handful of cases of problems every year.
Some of those involve incidents from people so stupid that they would find a way of defeating any other safety measure too.


Greg Fretwell
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