"Mark Lloyd" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:11:32 -0400, Goedjn 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

There are a lot of people with habitual ways of doing it,
and a lot of rationalization to support those ways, but
no particularly compelling reasons.

Ground up means falling conductors hit the ground first.
Ground down means that if the plug falls out under it's
own weight, the ground is the last to go.
Ground down means it looks like a smiley face and
attracts children. Ground up means that the
short prongs are on the bottom where it's
harder to see them when plugging things in.

I go with ground down because that's what
I'm used to.

If you're not consistant about it, it looks sloppy
and irritates the end-user. Was it me, I'd
pick one direction for normal convenience outlets,
and flip them upside down when I wanted to
signal some special-case ones.
(Like switched outlets, or outlets on a generator,
or something.)


I've seen red receptacles in hospitals. I think they do that to
indicate those connected to the emergency generator.


That's correct, at least is exactly how we do it in the data centers.
Orange, in this case for emergency power.

next time you grab a grounded cord to plug it in,
look at it and see which way you've turned it.
That's how the recepticle should go.

--Goedjn