In article ,
wrote:
Everytime I visit some one in a hospital or nursing home, or go into a
doctors office I see orange colored outlets lately. I know this is a
special grade of outlet made for medical use. What I do not know is
what is special about them? Are they just made more durable, or do
they contain some sort of special protection such as a GFCI (no push
buttons on them).


Orange outlets are Isolated Ground (IG), meaning that the ground pins on the
outlets are isolated from the mounting yoke. They are used for equipment
that may be sensitive to stray currents on the ground wire, such as computers
and medical equipment. They will normally be wired with a dedicated ground
wire back to the ground bus in the panel, known as Star Grounding. The idea
is that the grounds are tied together at a single location, with a single
ground path, in order to reduce noise induced on the ground bus.

IG outlets are designated by a triangle on the face of the outlet, and are
normally orange in color, but not always.

IG outlets are not always Hospital Grade, which is a separate rating, but
are generally at least Commercial Grade, if not Specification Grade.

Hospital Grade outlets are designated by a green dot on the face, and
may, but are not required to be IG.

You may also see blue outlets, which are frequently Surge Protection,
or yellow outlets, which are normally Corrosion Resistant. The Surge
Protection outlets may also be IG.

Other colors generally have no special meaning, although you sometimes see
red used for emergency power circuits.



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