Upside down receptacles?

[Brian Elfert]

Also a couple of posters mentioned metallic box covers falling on the ground plug or across the line.

Even though the metallic cover did cause issues for me this should be a very rare situation. Normally you wouldn't be plugging something in without the outlet plate screwed on.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Did you also ask him to clock the screws?

Well, to be honest about it, my OCD compels me to do it . . . . . . just so it looks "right" . . . . .

Doesn't everybody?????????????????????

[Rick Potter]

You made me look.

I went to Kaiser HMO local office for a blood test, and all the plugs were upside down, even in the reception area.

[Mike Cozad]

All of my exterior boxes are mounted horizontally. Now what??

[Mike Henderson]

All of my exterior boxes are mounted horizontally. Now what??

I don't know if this is required in the NEC, but horizontal boxes should always have the neutral side up, hot side down.

Mike

[Tom M King]

When we built our house in 1980, I showed my Wife how to wire up the devices. I didn't tell her to orient them one way or another. She put all the ground sockets up. When the inspector came for a final, he said, "Every damn one of them is upside down, but I ain't gonna make you change them". My method for wiring a receptacle is ground wire first, neutrals second, one 180 twist over (I'm right handed), hook up the hots, and in the box it goes.

[Julie Moriarty]

I've only worked on a few hospital jobs but all required the ground to be up and all receptacles to be mounted vertically. The first time I saw this I asked the job foreman about it and he gave the reason about something falling on the plug and hitting the ground blade first. Then he said, "But if you put the ground blade on the bottom, whatever is connected to the plug will be grounded until the plug is completely removed. It all depends on how you look at it."

I had never seen anything like that happen at the time and haven't since. It would have to be a precision hit with the right object. When the subject came up on the job over the years, there was never anyone who had actually witnessed it but there were proponents of the ground up theory and I do remember some saying that's how they are installed in their house.

Back to that first hospital job, I grabbed one of the tools on the job and plugged in to a receptacle I took out of it's package and tested both theories. Both can be correct, but both theories can be seen as weak. In the end, you have to follow the specs and the specs on hospital jobs I worked on always said ground up and receptacle vertical. BTW, all the coverplates in hospitals were stainless steel and that means they are grounded to the receptacle. So it is possible something could short out by hitting just the hot blade and coverplate. As far as the dangers involved, the breaker would most likely trip immediately, GFCI or not. About the only situation that might pose a danger of electrical shock would be where the plug was pulled away from the wall and a conductor touched the hot blade, and nothing else, and sent current to something that wasn't grounded. It's a stretch.

FWIW, every other job I ever worked on was receptacle horizontal and ground to the right.

During those times when work was plentiful in our local, travellers from other locals would come in for work. Many of those coming from rural areas commented on the horizontal, ground right installations we typically did. If I remember correctly, they were used to vertical installations but most often ground down. I think we all pretty much all agreed that conformity mattered most unless specs requires something else.

[Rich Enders]

Perhaps elsewhere in AZ also, but for sure in the greater Phoenix area normal residential is ground down and ground up indicates a switched outlet. The top of the duplex receptacle is switched, and the bottom is always hot.

[Lornie McCullough]

While measuring a kitchen for new cabinets, I had an extended tape measure fall across the prongs of a plug, and short out.

I still install all receptacles ground-plug down, because it looks more pleasing to my eye.

Lornie

[Rob Damon]

I do this for a living.

In Virginia, the State adopts the VUSBC which includes the IEC which references the NEC. The States can choose to adopt the NEC in whole or in part and modify it when it deems necessary. It is not a law but a minimum design safety standard that has been adopted. The National Electrical Code is a standard of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 70), and it is not the law of the land but a standard that States/Federal government choose to adopt thus making it the law. (Just because the NFPA adopts a new updated standard, does not make it the latest law. The States must adopted it first before it standards become part of the law. Although the NEC 2014 has been published, Virginia only recently adopted the NEC 2011 and will stay on that standard most likely until the 2017 is published. Some States adopt quicker than others.

The NEC code groups have debated this over and over and has thus far refuse to put this requirement in the NEC.

The debate:

- If the plug pulls partially away from the receptacle and a conductive object drops down between the plug and the receptacle with the Phase and Grounded blade (i.e. neutral) up, it could cause an arc and thus start a fire. This is especially prone to happen in bedrooms where beds are push up against an in use receptacle.

- If the plug is oriented with the grounding pin up, the object will not arc and if it rotates down one way, it will make contacted between the Grounded blade and the Grounding blade.

- If it rotates the other direction, the object will make contact between the Grounding pin and the Phase Blade, and cause an arc and thus starting a fire.

-The Grounding pin is longer, if grounding pin is down the cord in pulled out/down, the grounding pin will maintain contact longer.

-Most owners, state agencies have adopted more stringent requirements and feel that Grounding pin up is the way to go, whether safer or not.

-The only exception that almost is never addressed by the Grounding pin up bandwagon is that most A/C window units and refrigerator still come with cord with 90 degree plugs from the cord. If these cords are plugged into the "ground" up receptacle the cord will be coming out the top of the plug and will be bending back over and down, ultimately creating undo stress on the molded plug. So even when a University requires the ground up by supplement technical standards, we will still override it and specify ground down for single outlets that serve dedicated appliances that still come with cords/plugs that have the Ground orientation plugs down.

-In residential applications this is becoming a moot point in new construction which the current adopted codes requires Arc fault protected outlets almost through-out a house. It first started to apply to just bedrooms, but has been extend through the house.

With that said, you will find most Engineers in the past 10-15 years have been specifying ground up.

[Phil Thien]

With that said, you will find most Engineers in the past 10-15 years have been specifying ground up.

I spend a good part of my life in data centers and industrial facilities and never, ever, ever come across ground-up anywhere but hospitals. Ever. Even in brand-new construction.

[David Helm]

I can't believe there are four pages of discussion of what is, essentially, a non-issue. I think the reason most people think that ground down looks better is that we are used to seeing mouths below eyes.

[Brian Elfert]

Sure, it is a non-issue, but I am sure it bugs plenty of people when they see buildings with receptacles ground up. Nobody typically notices receptacles installed ground down, but I bet tons of people notice when receptacles are ground up. Us humans tend to notice when things don't seem normal and normal for most is ground down. My father and I just recently replaced all the receptacles in my house and I would have never considered doing ground up.

[Rob Damon]

Never bugged me personally, when I install quad receptacles in a box at home, I put one receptacle ground up and one receptacle ground down for flexibility.

[David Ezell]

This thread brings back memories. It was 22 years ago that I built the house my wife and I occupy today. As general contractor/grunt I took on the electrical wiring. My wife still cringes every time she plugs something in. She had little faith in my abilities. However, among the 10,000 decisions that you consult each other on during construction, the results on this one still raise observant eyebrows. As I delved into stripping wire and installing outlets I drew a blank on this ground up/ground down question. Lacking Google, I called my beloved, who happen to work in a hospital, and asked her to look at the outlet closest to her and give me guidance. So there you have it. I can always tell guests who notice that the wiring in our house is "commercial" grade. Later, I heard that another reason hospitals do this is that if something gets loose inside the wall and falls down, crushing the metal receptacle box, it would contact the ground first.