In article ,
bob haller wrote:

On Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 9:18:14 PM UTC-4, 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?

homes in florida often have outlets in the same home orientated both ways

ground pin down for always on, ground pin up for switched outlets

I have two switched outlets. One has ground pin down with the switch on
top. Left is off, right is on.

The other is horizontal. The switch is on the left, outlet on the right
so ground pin is to the right. Down is off, up is on.

The outlet for my washing machine was installed when my house was
renovated 15 years ago. The ground pin was up, but the power cord
plugged in "upside down". I eventually got tired of looking at the cord
folding over and rotated the outlet.

All of the other outlets were installed with the ground pin down. This
includes the separately switched garbage disposal outlet under the sink.

Fred
in Florida