Ground Up or Ground Down

Allen Bryant

Member
Messages
35
Location
Bumpass, VA
This morning, my neighbor was over while I was putting in the electrical outlets in the new shop (that story will be in shop tours shortly) and asked me why I was putting in the electrical outlets upside down. I never really thought about it, but I've always put the ground plug up when I install outlets. Back in high school when I was planning on being an electrician, I was working part time with an electrical contractor and he always put the outlets with the ground facing up. I just kept doing it that way because he did, not because he told me that had to go that way.

Other than appearance is there a reason why they should go one way or the other? Which way does everybody else install them?
 
I always put them ground pin down, mostly because a lot of the things that come with molded plugs are made to work in that direction. There is really no correct way, though a lot of folks argue ground pin up is safer, theorizing that if something thin fell on to the outlet with a plug in it, it would hit the ground instead of a hot. I did notice that in most of the hospitals around me they have the ground pin up. Nevertheless, there is no correct way (at least in the US).
 
I've always mounted outlets with the ground down because they look more balanced visually to me. As Fred said, a lot of things come with molded plugs that have the ground lug toward the cord or angled like one I'm looking at here in my shop right now. In either case, if the ground was up, the cord would have to point up rather than toward the floor or counter.
 
My understanding is in Canada, that the ground is supposed to go up. As said, unless there was some change recently, we have no (at least enforced) requirement one way or the other, and with devices down tend to be easier.

That said, when I had some work done, I had the ground going the direction of the wire. That way if I ever had to do something in a wall, I had an idea before cutting into it.
 
Don't you mean this position Leo :eek: I've noticed around here that a lot of the commercial places have them up. I like Jim's idea of the switched outlets being up and the rest down. My OCD would kick in though and I'd have to change it.
 
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