[ARC5] 125 VAC Line? Make Your BA's Happy,

[Bruce Long]

Yes I agree for both good common sense and - as I understqand it for code compliance  the ground pin should be top most.
When I was younger I thought this was a bit silly.   I mean come on, what is the chance of dropping something conductive across the hot and nutral pins of a partially inserted 120vac plug?    

Of course eventually I did just exactly that.  The circuit breaker blew and the tweezers I had in my hand as I attempted to plug in a 120vac into an unseen wall socket and the plug blades themselves where a bit notched but other than that no significant long term damage.   Still it is possible to drop something across the exposed blades of a partially inserted 120vac plug.
I also remember some people who had a new house build something like 35 years ago and made their "stupid" electrical contractor come back and orient all wall sockets "correctly"   I could see an electrician  deciding doing it right was more trouble than it was worth and sticking to the expected ground pin down convention.

 

      From: Robert Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net>
 To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 8:44 PM
 Subject: Re: [ARC5] 125 VAC Line? Make Your BA's Happy,
   
 Back circa 1979 an electrician in California told me that 120VAC power receptacles should be installed "upside down" with the ground pin on the top, because: 1.  It is less attractive to a child because it does not look like a face.2.  If you drop something conductive, like a thin piece of metal and it hits a partially inserted plug, it will not short across the two power leads.3.  If you trip over a power cord and jerk it, the plug will tend to just come out of the socket rather than the ground pin breaking off - which I am sure we have all seen occur.  This is the one that really makes sense to me I started installing electrical receptacles that way.  However, I was having my pool equipment rewired a few years ago and I asked the electrician about that, and he said it was true and that if he was wiring in a hospital he would indeed do it that way, but for ordinary homes he still installs it ground pin down. By the way, a while back Amazon had a really good price on some rather beefy isolation transformer.
WayneWB5WSV      
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