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burfordTjustice burfordTjustice is offline
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Default Electrical Outlets Upside Down? Code?

On Thu, 29 Sep 2016 06:26:30 -0700 (PDT)
DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 7:39:29 AM UTC-4, Colonel Edmund
J. Burke wrote:
On 9/28/2016 6:18 PM, TomR wrote:
A friend of mine asked me today why the electrical outlets in my
house were "upside down". They are positioned with the ground
pin hole at the top and the two slots of the outlet on the
bottom. I agree that, to me, they "look" like they are upside
down, and I think they would "look" better with the ground pin
hole on the bottom. But, my belief is that the National
Electrical Code (NEC) is silent on this question and that there
is no right or wrong orientation for electrical outlets.

My friend said that he has had code enforcement officials tell
him that electrical outlets with the ground pin hole on top were
"upside down" and that they needed to be reversed to be with the
ground pin on the bottom to pass the electrical inspection.

Is there anything in the NEC that says that one way is "upside
down" and the other way is the "correct" orientation?



This is a question I tackled, successfully, years ago, here at
Sunset Chateau.
The neutral pin on the top is a safety precaution all us expert
electrical types know about and perform on a routine basis. The
purpose of such arrangement is to prevent a short should, for
example, someone drop a metal object on partially exposed pins.


Neutral pin? On the top?

That can only happen if the receptacle is mounted sideways. I'd
hardly consider that to be "routine".


Not all that uncommon.....