Quote Originally Posted by Dan Hintz View Post
As far as I can tell, the NEC has never specified location of ground, neutral, or live lugs... sounds like an electrician's wive's tale that just keeps getting passed down from generation to generation.
I worked with guys who practically memorized the NEC and anytime anyone did anything in violation of the NEC, they were right there correcting them. Never was there any mention of orientation of the receptacle. Hospitals did it one way and everyone else did it another. You learn "the right way" to orient them when you're an apprentice and that "right way" is the way nothing more than a local preference.

For all the countless conversations we've had on the jobsites about how to do something the right way (and I've been on jobs with as many as 250 electricians), there has never been one about receptacle orientation that lasted more than a few minutes. They always ended with, "That's our standard here (Chicago and the surrounding areas) and that's how we do it." The NEC was never cited.