View Single Post
  #50   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair,alt.usenet.kooks
Sir Gregory Hall, Esq.[_2_] Sir Gregory Hall, Esq.[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 112
Default Electrical Outlets Upside Down? Code?

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 21:59:36 -0000 (UTC), Nadegda wrote:
On Thu, 29 Sep 2016 09:17:18 -0700, Checkmate, DoW #1 wrote:
In article , says...
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.

May the Eye of Horus be which you.


You're partially correct. The ground pin is not known as a neutral pin.
The flat blade that's currently made wider than the other flat blade is
the neutral. While both of them are grounded, the neutral is intended
to carry current, and the ground only carries current in the event of a
fault. It is safer to have the ground on top for the reason you
mentioned, but I know of nothing in the NEC that dictates which way you
mount them, unless it's a recent change.

This was one of my main complaints with electrical inspectors, back when
I had to deal with them. Sometimes they make **** up and claim it's a
code violation, when it isn't. We had an old saying: "Those who can,
do. Those who can't, inspect".


Expect Fakey along any hour now to embarrass himself by proving his
fathomless ignorance of all things electrical engineering. Again.


The FVNWe needs to come along and straighten out Checkmate's
display of electrical ignorance.

Poor Checkmate claims the neutral pin/wire carries the current.

Duh, doesn't he know there needs to be a circuit before any
current may be carried. Thus it needs the neutral and the
hot to carry the current. It doesn't need the ground. This
is why one can snip off the ground pin on a power tool so
it can be plugged into a two-slot outlet.

HTH

--

Sir Gregory Hall, Esq.

"It is my learned opinion that a man
should not mince words just to spare
the sensibilities of the thin-skinned
or the ignorant."