Uncle Monster wrote :
On Saturday, October 1, 2016 at 7:49:45 AM UTC-5, FromTheRafters wrote:
Uncle Monster expressed precisely :
On Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 10:56:30 AM UTC-5, FromTheRafters wrote:
HerHusband was thinking very hard :

and quoted someone without attribution.

I think they look stupid when they are upside down (ground on top). I
put them with ground on bottom because thats what I'm used to and what
looks best.

and then added

I agree, but I suppose that's due to the way we recognize faces in humans
and most animals. We are accustomed to seeing two eyes on top and a mouth
below. So we tend to see faces even in inanimate objects. When the ground
is placed on top, it just instinctively looks "wrong". At least that's my
theory...

Does that cloud look like an electrical outlet?

LOL

As an aside, one of the purported reasons I read for the ground-up
orientation was that children see a face and try to feed it a nice meal
of paperclips. I'm not entirely convinced of that myself, but there it
is. Two other reasons which made sense were that pictures mounted on
walls with metal wires, and the metal escutcheons on the receptacles
themselves are the perceived hazards.

Apparently none of those were compelling enough for NEC to jump on
board.

[...]

If the screw holding a metal outlet cover comes loose, the cover can fall
onto the hot and neutral as a plug is removed or is partially unplugged.
Whenever I installed receptacles, I install them ground up for a vertical
installation and neutral up for a horizontal installation. That's the way
I've done it, you can do it your way. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Outlet Monster

One person's metallic receptacle escutcheon is another's metal outlet
cover. They're both screwed if it is a shock hazard when becoming
unscrewed.

Bottom line, there is no NEC code and no proof yet of any local code
mandating either orientation, and evidence of both can be found in the
wild for plugs and receptacles. I suspect it is an inspector's
prerogative to mess with installation people by saying "It's code".

It is, the inspectors in Birmingham want the ground pin up but the next city
over, the electrical inspector doesn't care about the sexual orientation of
the outlet. Something to do with a Supreme Court decision. o_O

[8~{} Uncle Plugged Monster

What about the mens rooms, do they have to have prongs sticking out of
the walls so that they feel comfortable?