I dont think the NEC stipulates either way. Authority having
jurisditction could answer that.

If you have the ground down and the receptacle is loose and the cord
end starts to fall out the ground will still be in. First make last
break.

If you have the ground down and some how or another something metal
falls across the hot and neutral if the cord is not plugged all the
way in it will obviously short it.

6 of this and half a dozen of the other.

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:11:08 -0700, "Eigenvector"
wrote:

This might sound like a dumb question, but is there a proper orientation for
an outlet? I'm looking at the replacement outlet that I am going to install
and I notice (based purely on the text stamped on the outlet face) that the
text on the outlet is upside down if you put the ground prong on the bottom,
but the text on the outlet is rightside up and readible, the ground prong is
on top of the hot and neutral prong.

Does the orientation matter so far as code is concerned? Is there a reason
why having the ground tap on the top would be necessarily a bad thing - if
only because the cords wouldn't stay in the outlet or you'd have to always
twist the cord 180 degrees when you plugged in.