Orientation of wall sockets

[Richard Jones]

I was not refering to building/electrical inspectors, my comments were directed to Home Inspectors. I did leave out local rules due a wide variety that can be on the books....

Thanks, I feel better now!!! Would love to discourse on your home inspector comment, but alas, professionalism rears it's ugly head. And thanks to Ken F. for a nice compliment.

Now let's beat this horse some more...............

In some institutions, like hospitals, the A/E will spec. the orientation of the device. If you look at some mfg.'s info, like Hubbell, all of their receptacles are ground up. Maybe they photograph better that way, dunno.

IIRC, some mfg's. used to specify the install orientation, altho' I can't seem to find any that do now. If anyone is truly concerned about this, maybe installing an arc fault breaker will allow you a good night's sleep. Stuff happens, that's what breakers are for.

Another way would be to install two of the "rotatable" duplex's in a two gang box and orient each in a different way. One of 'em's gotta be right, eh?

Rich (CBO) in VA

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

no code requirement exists
However if you are installing 'em and get 'em flipped around so they are inconsistent the inspector might reject you.

Might because he really can't cite to any code that would support his rejection other than his personal opinion that it's not workmanlike.

[Bill Fitch]

Since I am about to add some 240V receptacles to my garage, this thread has caught my interest. I did find something in a book "Practical Electrical Wiring", 20th edition. In that the author states:

The NEC takes no position on the orientation of the ground hole on a receptacle, up or down (or left or right). Some prefer to mount the ground hole up, based on the ground pin providing some protection against a metal object dropping against a partially inserted plug and potentially contacting the hot blade. Others prefer the ground pin down, based on the orientation of multitudes of angle cord caps that prevent the cord from hanging straight down unless the ground pin is in the lower position. Many receptacles are mounted horizontally, and many cord caps orient a 45-deg angle from the ground pin so they can be used in either vertical or horizontal recepticals. It is impossible to make receptical orientation into a rule, so let the owner decide.

I think this represents the general consensus. But it is noteworthy that the author is the senior member of NEC's Code Making Panel 9.

I also highly recommend the book. It is easy to read and understand.

[Wayne Cannon]

My book based on the 2002 NEC says that there is "no actual Code rule on positioning receptacles", but that it is "recommended" that the grounding hole be at the top in case something metal were to fall onto the blades of a plug. For years, it was recommended that the grounding hole be at the bottom, explaining why some devices expect the grounding hold on the bottom.

If the receptacle is mounted horizontally, the neutral blades should be on top (making the grounding hole on the left).

My reasoning: The grounding connection always grips better than either the neutral or hot terminals. When the grounding hole is on the bottom, the plug tends to pivot to open a gap at the top, exposing the neutral and hot terminals (or the two hot 240 V terminals). With the grounding hole on top, the plug pivots to close the gap -- safer.

[Ken Higginbotham]

Sounds like the consensus is that technically it don't really matter which way they go.

I turned the ground down on the 220 plug for my table saw because the cord did a right angle down instead of up

[Curt Harms]

Some of the electricians I've used install most receptacles with the ground pin down. If the receptacle is switched or half switched (my preference), the device is installed ground pin up. Seems like a helpful idea but any future owners or residents probably wouldn't know this so perhaps not. I just put the pin down on everything because the other way just looks "wrong" to my overly "retentive" eye.

That is an excellent idea, how often does one want to switch 2 devices? Less often than having one device switched and one hot all the time, I bet. Having said that, I could imagine as a builder getting phone calls about "half my outlet doesn't work!"

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Curt,

Having one outlet switched and one hot all the time in the same receptacle is exactly how they wired the receptacles in my living room.

I can plug a lamp in one outlet and clock or telephone into the other outlet in the same receptacle. I control the lamp via a switch while the clock or cordless phone remains powered.

I forget now whether the top outlet is switched or the bottom outlet is switched.

[James Fleming]

I dealt with this issue in my shop, at least with the 120v outlets, by installing square boxes with two duplex outlets. One ground up and one ground down. Not a perfect fix, but it helps avoid some frustration. I install the single outlets whichever way matches up best with what will be plugged into them.

[Sean Tracey]

On Mike Holt's electrical forum the topic of receptacle orientation is banned due to the neverending argument on the subject. Pick an orientation and defend it to the death with whatever reasons you can imagine, you're just as correct as everybody else.

If you install receptacle's with the ground up, you have to install all of the toilet paper rolls so that they unroll from the backside.

[Chris Padilla]

Curt,

Having one outlet switched and one hot all the time in the same receptacle is exactly how they wired the receptacles in my living room.

I can plug a lamp in one outlet and clock or telephone into the other outlet in the same receptacle. I control the lamp via a switch while the clock or cordless phone remains powered.

I forget now whether the top outlet is switched or the bottom outlet is switched.

In doing some minor rewiring in my living room, I learned about a neat trick (well, it wasn't that tricky...only that I hadn't thought of it before) the electrician's did. They simply ran 14/3 everywhere and if an outlet was to be switched, the red switched wire would be hooked up. Ohterwise, it was wire-nutted and folded back into the box. So I did this in the living room and now any outlet can be switched to my heart's content or as often as my wife decides on a major rearrangment of the furniture!