kjvand wrote on 21 Jul 2007 in group
alt.home.repair:

Last year when we totally remodeled one of our bathrooms, we had an
electrician change the light switch next to the entry door. It
used to be 2 vertical switches, one for the light and one for the
fan. We replaced that switch with a combination gfi outlet and
switch. The new switch has 2 horizontal switches stacked one above
the other, and when he installed it, it was positioned so that the
'on' position is flipped away from the door, and 'off' is flipped
towards the door. This seemed a natural way to have the switch go
on and off.
A short while ago, we had a different electrician do some work, in
which he split one large looped electrical line into 2. During
this process, he removed the bathroom switch, and when he put it back
up, he placed it the other way, so that now the 'on' position is
towards the door, and 'off' is away.

Is there any standard way to install horizontal light switches by the
entry door? I preferred it when it was flipped on by pushing away
from the door. Or, is this like toilet paper - rolling off the
top or off the back is simply a matter of preference?

BTW, when we first bought the house, yet a different electrician put
new slider and flip switches at the entry to each bedroom, and he also
positioned them with 'on' away from the door.

In my previous life as a math teacher, I had a section on "Positives and
Negatives". It goes like this:
Up is positive, down is negative.
North is positive, South is negative.
East is positive, West is negative.
Big is positive, small is negative.
Clockwise is positive, counterclockwise is negative.
Right is positive, left is negative.
Red is positive (pretty color), black is negative (ugly color).
... repeat ad infinitum ...

This principle is applied to most things in life, either explicitly or
by accident. It seems to be part of human nature. Applying the principle
to switches, ON would be either UP or RIGHT, and OFF would be either
DOWN or LEFT. This will please most people.

Of course, there are exceptions: red is negative on a stoplight, but
positive on a battery; clockwise is positive on a switch, but negative
when measuring angles.

--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement