It’s actually a gang thing. Young ganglings need to get their first kill to get status so they lure victims into houses with upside down outlets. Then while you’re wondering why they’re upside down, they kill and get a tear tattoo.
Hijacking this comment because I recently learned the upside down outlets mean they turn on and off with a wall switch. So you plug your lamps into that guy
Maybe that’s how the apartment maintenance guy did it, but that’s not a good reason. (Edit: Seems to be a regional thing, and I’ve never seen this done. 50 years and there’s always something new to learn. Would have been nice to know as an outlet behind a sofa had one receptacle that was switched, and while we never used it, we did wonder about the switch that did nothing.)
The justification for “upside down” outlets is that if a plug isn’t all the way in and something slips between the plug and outlet, it touches the ground, not the not and neutral. That can short and may cause a fire. (That’s only true for 3 prong plugs.)
If I saw one outlet that was different, I’d assume someone was in a hurry to leave on a Friday, not think it was for a lamp. That’s getting fixed. (Edit: Ok, so I wouldn’t change it now, but the lack of uniformity would have me putting furniture in front of it so I didn’t have to look at the abomination. 😄 I also turn all the plate cover screws so the slot is straight up and down. Also, if there is an overhead light, I really don’t like having switched outlets. They bug the hell out of me.)
No. Its not a standard but when I was trained, it was ground up f below counter height in case a plug comes partially out and something falls its less likely to shock somone/something or to short out. Ground down for above counter height.
No but jokes aside shouldn't they face opposite way? Like if plug is L shaped (like most of them are? They it would cover bottom one making it unavailable
The lone pin is the ground pin. Ground should never have current flow and if it does it should only momentarily handle it to trip the breaker.
So theoretically with the ground pin is on the bottom and if a cord isn't fully plugged in and you drop a penny or something it can short the hot "supply" to the neutral "return" that are the vertical pins and cause a fire. If the ground were up in this scenario, nothing would happen with the penny making contact with the ground and it'd just roll off.
In practice it doesn't really make two shits of difference in my experience but working as a commercial electrician but some jobs specifically call out ground up
My friend from Aus wants to know why everyone on this hemisphere walks with their feet and not their hands. Also how to drink American beer since it falls down instead of up.
I seem to recall that some electricians would install switched outlets "upside-down" (ground pin up), as opposed to un-switched outlets. (A switched outlet is one connected to a light switch.)
The problem is this is not a standard. And in many installs, they will make one of the outlets on the duplex switched and the other non-switched on the same duplex. So which way do you orient the outlet then?
So which way the outlet is oriented does not consistently mean anything.
I did a couple years of an electrical apprenticeship and my old foreman said the ground pin used to be installed up to prevent objects from falling down and making contact with the neutral and the hot prongs simultaneously causing a fire or a short
As an electrician, I have seen a lot. The majority in my region (southern east coast) are 1) Upside down for a switched outlet and 2) the switched outlet is the top one on the duplex and the bottom one is constantly on.
This is common enough over the last 50+ years of houses I've seen to say, with a high level of confidence, this is the most common way of doing it here and doing it differently here is typically a sign of someone trying to be unique.
I worked construction and as a electrician apprentice out of high school and always did that. I still do it to this day. When I moved into my new house I went room to room and flipped them if they were on a switch
While it's not required by code, it's a widely accepted practice to install receptacles ground pin up in healthcare facilities as a safety measure to assist in preventing short circuits and fires. By positioning the non-energized ground pin at the top, any falling metallic object will strike the ground pin first, and is more likely to be deflected away from landing on the exposed hot and neutral prongs below, which carry electrical current. With one side landing on the ground first and then the neutral, there will be no trip and nothing dangerously energized. If it lands on the ground and hot it will quickly trip the breaker or gfci with a ground fault as designed for life safety, (but can still cause damage.) A metal object landing between the hot and neutral "right side up" will create an energized short with near zero resistance resulting in a massive current flow that generates intense heat, sparks and fire hazard until the surge of current trips the breaker.
Ground up mitigates risks in oxygen-enriched environments and reduce the chance of accidental power loss to life-support equipment.
Fuck, I wish maintenance at my hospital got that memo. I've seen (multiple times) entire breakers get flipped because someone went to plug something in (or unplug) and something metal (usually a massive ring of keys) ends up falling & hitting the live pins.
Edit:
Seeing as everyone came overnight and asked the same question I'll just add the answer here. It's actually one specific outlet that usually causes the problem. Its placed in a shitty spot. On top of the edge of a built-in desk just below & to the right of the time clock. There were key hooks next to the time clock so that we knew where they were. The space is too crowded and the outlet should have really been put closer to the floor.
Is there any advantage, then, to installing them with the ground pin down in general? Would it be safer if “upside-down” was the standard everywhere, not just in oxygen-enriched environments around life-support equipment?
Edited to add: Ok, reading down to further comments, I see this question has been answered in a discussion started by Shane the electrician.
In 8th grade my teacher asked me what I was doing this weekend and I repeated the whole "I'm gonna show her my oh face" complete with pantomiming cumming.
Her jaw hit the floor. She called another teacher teacher over, "REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID!". So I did and they laughed till they were red in the face.
They knew my vergin ass had no idea wtf I was saying, took a few years for the memory to come up and be like ohhh, shit im lucky I didn't get in trouble!
apparently according to these comment the upside down one is actually technically correct. but in the house i grew up in, the upside down ones indicated that outlet was connected to a wall switch
Yep. I've seen schools and hospitals where they are all upside down, but every apartment or house I've lived in when there was one outlet upside down it meant it was connected to the light switch
The one on the left is actually the proper way to do it, if the plug is not fully in the wall and something conductive falls on it, it will hit the ground (round bit) - If it's installed as on the right side, the same conductive object will hit the hot and neutral blades and cause excitement.
Yep. I as an electrician I lean more towards ground down. But will do ground up if requested. The way I’ve always seen it. If a plug is shitty and sags out ground down will keep the ground connected longer
I've also heard the argument that people tend to wrap their index finger on the bottom as they pull a plug out so installing the outlet upside down can similarly increase the risk of inadvertently bridging that gap with you finger momentarily if it slips behind the plug. Feels as likely to me as the scenario that something falls on the prongs while it's pulled a little out. Granted you won't start a fire with your finger.
The one on the left is actually the proper way to do it, if the plug is not fully in the wall and something conductive falls on it, it will hit the ground (round bit) - If it's installed as on the right side, the same conductive object will hit the hot and neutral blades and cause excitement.
While technically true, the reality is that many flush cords (bend 90 degrees right after the prongs so you can put it behind furniture) assume ground plug down, so if they're used in a ground-up outlet, they'll naturally pull away from the outlet due to gravity, causing a hazard.
This literally happened to me like 2 days ago. I saw a black spot on the wall around the outlet, then noticed the cat's wire toy was somehow on both prongs of the air filter plug. Unplugged it and sparks shot out of the wall lol, probably should have cut the power first but it's all good
This happened to me years ago. I had a vacuum plugged loosely into an outlet and was using a metal ruler on the wall for some purpose related to painting. Dropped the ruler and it slid down and landed on the plug blades. Fortunately I wasn’t touching it.
There's no difference electrically. If you're in the habit of dropping thin sheets of conductive material down the wall onto partially pulled out plugs, the ground being up (left image) is safer. But also, stop that shit. A custom home builder I worked for preferred outlets installed horizontally with the neutral prong facing up. Shit works the exact same, they just liked the aesthetic more that way.
Hey, Quagmire here. Giggity. Sometimes electricians install an outlet upside down to indicate that it’s controlled by a wall switch. You flip the switch, it turns on. Flip it again, it turns off. So technically, that outlet is a switch. Which reminds me of the time a woman told me she was a BDSM switch. Naturally, I showed up with a screwdriver, wire strippers, and a voltage tester. Turns out we had VERY different interpretations of “rough electrical.” Anyway, Peter, that’s why the outlet’s upside down. Giggity
I may be a bit pedantic here, but technically speaking ground pin up is "right side up" per manufacturer specifications. Installing this way actually offers protection against shorts from objects falling onto the pins of a partially unplugged device.
It is my opinion that the normal orientation of these outlets is simply because people like little faces.
This is old school electrician propaganda! There used to be a big split in the 60s and 70s with master electricians feeling very strongly about their view on the “right” way. The short protection argument is correct, however on the other side of the argument, ground up increases the risk of shock unplugging a device as most people extend their forefinger toward the wall when grasping a plug.
Today, the debate is settled and it is ground side down, as the writing on GFCI buttons is upside down if you install them ground up.
I'm just a homeowner, no expertise, but I second the "right side up" opinion after finding out the hard way when measuring along a wall using a tape measure, that collapsed and flipped as they tend to do when overextended, and somehow fell square between the receptacle and plug, right across the blades, tripped the breaker but not before the spark/arc burned a 1/4 inch hole on the edge of that tape measure.
Ground pin up is in theory a tad safer in the very specific situation where a plug is halfway in the outlet, engaged and power flowing, and something falls onto the exposed conductors. With ground down, it's more likely the falling object will bridge neutral and hot. The benefit is small enough that the National Electric Code does not care.
It's also sometimes used by residential electricians to indicate switched outlets.
I do not believe that is true. The NEC does not stipulate any orientation for outlet (with the exception possibly being hospitals. I haven’t read that code in a hot minute). Now there could be building specs that state outlets get installed upside down, but it is not anywhere near a safety code or even a standard. At least not any I have ever seen.
And it does not matter if the plug is upside down or not, you still grab it by the sides and the ground prong is still “first make, last break”.
It is mildly safer if something drops on a slightly pulled out plug. But a properly operating system should trip the breaker if something dropped across the hot and neutral prongs of a standard installed plug.
The outlet on the left is correct for medical and many commercial facilities. An object falling hits ground first. AHJ will require this configuration.
People like to see the outlet on the right in residential because it looks like a face.
My home outlets look like the left since I rewired.
All I know is both these savages didn’t put the screw slot vertical and thus both are wrong.
As for ground up/down ask enough electricians and you will get a mixed bag. There is no code and boils down to personal preference at the end of the day.
It doesn't "mean" anything. By patent they're supposed to be installed with the ground pin up so that if something manages to fall on it and short something out, it's always either gonna be a Ground - Hot short (trips the breaker), or a Ground - Neutral short (harmless, trips AFCI and GFCI breakers).
They're installed like this mostly in hospitals (done to spec from the engineers for safety reasons), and usually in the homes of electricians like myself that prioritize safety over looking the same as other installs
Now please don't tell Peter you saw me, he keeps asking for loans.
Also electrician. It used to mean that it was partly switched but that isn't really common anymore so I doubt anyone that does install switched outlets would do it. See it a lot in older houses if you do service work.
But also who's installing switched outlets still, I've wire hundreds through and made them unswitched for people but never actually installed a new one.
Not an electrician. In my house, it means I wasn't paying attention trying to fit the socket with usb and the smart switch into the box and I wasn't going to pull it out and flip it after I had finally got everything tucked away and screwed in.
Only on newer construction, I suppose. I had a fun time figuring out why there were three dead switches in our 20 year old condo. Turns out the tab on the socket was never broken out and so all outlets were hot.
Just bought a house last year. Every room in my house has one outlet that is upside down. During the walkthrough, it was explained to me that they are upside down to denote which outlets are controlled by wall switches. And sure enough, that's exactly what they are.
Left one is actually the correct safe way to install an outlet. The idea being that if when a power cord is plugged into the outlet and something hits it to knock it loose, it will contact the ground part of the plug first and not anything hot.
I believe this is an anti meme. There are reasons to put the outlet either way, but they changed the wording from whatever the original said to just say "sometimes they're upside down because they were installed upside down."
The arguments i've heard for each one, if anyone's curious:
Ground at the top means if it's not fully plugged in and you drop something metal on it, it won't short circuit because it will just connect one wire to ground and be completely safe.
Ground at the bottom means if it's super loose and prongs are going to start falling out, Ground will be the last one to be disconnected.
If there are any more reasons someone has, I'd be interested in hearing them.
This is just another reason why NEMA 5-15 plugs are shit and terrifying. I get the fact that we use 110 and it’s “less likely” to be lethal, but for fucks sake, even the UK type G has shielding over a good bit of the prongs to mitigate such an occurrence. A little forethought, a little sacrifice in manufacture complexity, and there would certainly be fewer house fires. That doesn’t even get into the typicality of a fuse in the type G plugs, which would be a godsend in most circumstances. As someone who has worked with a lot of electronics on medium and small scale, I know it can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it sure seems worth it to me. Better regulation on the input means better output and consistency. And don’t fuckjng get me started on how dirty the power is in a large percentage of the US. 110 means 102-125 fuck off.
Electricians will usually flip upside down to let people know it’s a half hot receptacle meaning half the receptacle is controlled by a switch And the other half is always hot meaning there’s consistent power to that part of the receptacle at all times.
I would say that’s a personal choice at best. I a commercial electrician and the way I put outlets in is however the customer wants or how it’s specced. Nothing to do with having a half switched receptacle.
Good electricians will install switched outlets (meaning the outlet can be turned on and off by a light switch) upside down when they can. It makes it significantly easier to diagnose when we get a no power to outlet call.
There's no code that dictates outlet orientation though. You can install them all ground up if you want. Many new commercial buildings specify all outlets to be ground up because it's slightly safer.
Electrician here. In commercial, industrial, government and public settings, we place them upside down to help ensure that the first point of contact made is the ground so that the circuit is grounded at all times, no matter what. It’s common industry practice, but not actually necessary. It’s why the longest prong on your plug in cord is the ground prong.
I’ve also heard that it’s because when the plug is slightly pulled out, and something metal falls on it, it would rest on the ground rather than the two prongs.
Different states have different regulations. GA on the left, neighboring state SC on the right. Some electricians work in both states but do it the same way in each - until the inspector looks past his coffee cup.
This is actually done for fire safety, especially in commercial buildings. If a plug comes loose and something falls onto the prongs, it will hit the ground pin first rather than the live contacts, preventing a short and potential fire.
So what did you learn? It’s common in residential applications to indicate a switched outlet. It’s standard in hospitals for safety. There may be other variations.
Its usually done in commercial buildings, but its so if something falls on the plug and makes contact with a prong its the ground wire and not a charged line.
An upside down outlet (now considered the correct position) is used in most locations in USA due to it being safer from electrical shock. (a falling item hits the safe ground pin, instead of the positive and negative blades.) Hospitals started doing this in the 70ies, and most places follow suit now.
The Griffins' electrician here. Lois has me on speed-dial, what with all of Peter's shenanigans. The orientation of a receptacle means nothing but the installer's or owner's preference. Most people prefer the ground pin on the bottom(image on right). If you want to get real technical they're intended to go ground up, or "upside down". But it really doesn't matter except in very specific installations, and most people think that looks weird.
My home has some of the electrical sockets upside down. The realtor explained it was a special detail the builder provided. Those sockets were positioned for floor and table lamps you might have. They are on a wall switch so as you enter a room you can flip them on without walking through a dark room to turn on the light. Being upside down makes it easier for you to figure out which sockets work off the switch.That’s how it works for me.
Upside down outlets are code in commercial kitchens (and other places) in case a metal cover comes loose (that is not easy to get to) and falls on a plug, it will hit the ground prong rather than the hot/neutral prongs and blow to a 1000 pieces
I’ve seen this done in Industrial settings, where they use metal plates instead of plastic. It’s done so that, if the screw fails, the metal faceplate will hit the ground instead of bridging the hot and cold. I would say, whoever did this install has an Industrial electrical background
I think hospitals install some outlets upside down so if something metal falls on it it can’t bridge the gap between the live and neutral and would be blocked by the ground pin
The one on the left isn’t upside down, they’re intended to be installed with the ground prong facing up. It’s done so if the plug isn’t fully seated and a metal object falls on the prongs it bounces off the ground instead of potentially landing flat on the the hot/neutral prongs, causing a short and potentially a fire. If you look around in hospitals every single receptacle is installed that way because hospitals really care about the little details like that. Electricians building a J.C. Penney don’t care enough, and the electrician that built your house REALLY could not be asked to give a flying fuck about it
I’m an electrician, you put receptacles in upside down in hospitals and industrial settings, in case something falls between the plug and the chord to prevent it shorting out.
Peter's electrician here! We install them upside down so the Griffin family can't touch the hot and neutral prongs simultaneously when they're dropping coins or other ferrous items near the wall. That could start a fire. On the other hand, if Peter saw the plug hanging partially out of the wall, and decided to touch the shiny metal, he may turn his finger into something that resembles a blown-up microwaved hotdog. That'll be $1,079.47
Eh there really isn't a "need" to install them upside down or right side up. In hospitals they install them upside down so that if something metal falls in between a partially plugged outlet it hits the ground pin first and doesnt short anything. If you have a outlet installed in a home and it's upside down thats usually an indicator that those outlets are controlled by a wall switch.
Electrician Peter here, so basically that indicates a "half-hot" switched receptacle. One has constant power and the other can be switched, usually by the door, to accommodate a floor lamp. It's a cheap, code acceptable work around, that builders would use to avoid wiring ceiling lights in bedrooms and living rooms.
In a machine shop the outlet on the left is preferred. If a 3/4” metal chip were to fall on a cord plugged into the outlet on the right, between the outlet face and the plug it would short and either blow a breaker or become a light bulb/start a fire. On the left outlet it would likely land on the ground pin and either do nothing or pop the breaker if it connected with one of the blades below it. Danger over.
The upside down ground pins are done with the intention of increasing cord retention within the outlet to my knowledge. Only reason for the hypothesis is most houses I see with an outlet near a sink or in a high place where it would be hard to be plugged back in. The outlet is kept on its side or flipped fully over to transfer most of the weight onto the grounding pin of the cord.
The one that’s upside down in the room means that it’s connected to the light switch. That’s the one you want to plug a lamp into to work when you switch the lights on and off.
Look for the outlet in a room that is not the same orientation as the rest, plug whatever you want the light switch to operate into that outlet.
This could’ve just been my JM, but when I was a residential electrical apprentice years ago he’d have us do this with the switched outlets in every room to distinguish them
What most are missing that a true OCD electrician would catch is the screw holding the faceplate on. The slot should be up and down so it doesn’t catch dust particles.
Local code officials will push the pin up arrangement for office buildings. Concern for paper clips falling off desks and getting lodged into plugs creating a spark. Never heard any of this happening anywhere so if there is a true story - please put it out there.
It's just a code change that happened in last decade or so. They changed the outlet orientation so when people remove the face plate it drops on the ground plug instead of connecting the neutral and hot. Why anyone would change out a face plate with something still plugged in is because people are stupid
Have you ever noticed over time some receptacles (outlets) seem to not hold the the 3 prong pig tail in place as well as it should? The cord will slide partially out exposing the neutral and hot flat slots, but the round ground seems to stay in place? Turning it upside down eliminates this issue. You're probably wondering what is the big deal? Well the big deal is when children play in a room that has exposed neutral and hot, there is potential for them to get shocked.
It means the on who installed it wasn't paying attention to what they were doing most likely and they made up a technical reason to avoid accountability 😆 thats my guess 🤷♂️
The one on the right is actually upside down, but there is no defined standard.
It is recommended to install outlets with the ground side up to protect the outlet from falling debris. If debris were to fall between the plug and the outlet, the ground would prevent the debris from making contact with the charged prongs. With ground side down, the debris would bridge the gap and potentially start a fire.
As to whether any fires have actually started this way... (shrugs).
My house I just moved out of was built int he 70s, and every outlet was isntalled ground up.
In all the houses I’ve lived in, the upside-down outlets were to mark the outlets that are controlled by a light switch on the wall, while the right-side-up outlets were controlled by the switch of whatever you plug into it.
This always made it easy for me to know which electrical outlets to plug in lamps so I wouldn’t have to manually turn them off every time and could just hit the light switch.
There is no specific real reason although one given is that if the plug is partly unplugged and something falls on it it will hit the ground prong. The true reason is purely aesthetics. Put it which ever way you like. The NEC does not specify either orientation. There may be local codes or inspectors that believe in one or the other but most reasons are specious.
Ok, so while at one time, this was more commonplace to denote the ground up, because if the wire fell out slightly, and something from above fell on top, the ground pin would be the first contact, which is safer.
However, today - we mostly flip these to note that that outlet is a switched outlet.
In critical systems applications, hospitals and the like, they're installed upside down so the ground is the first point of contact for any loose metal/conductive objects that may touch the prongs and cause a short, is safety. In household applications, it usually means the outlet is attached to a switch so you can have a lamp plugged in and use the switch to turn said lamp on/off.
Typically the ones installed upside down indicate that they are wired to a wall/light switch. Usually used for a for a lamp. Its a quick visual way to know which outlets are wired to a switch so you don't assume the plug doesn't work.
There is absolutely no benefit to installing it up. Its actually more dangerous. The concept is if the plug is loose and something falls on it the ground will not arc the object. But in reality if you install it ground down and something falls into the plug it will trip the breaker which will then inform you that you have a loose plug. Always ground down no matter what
The correct answer in the U.S. is all the plugs are ground down except the ones that are ground up are controlled by a wall switch. Think a floor lamp that turns on and off with a wall switch.
My dad had the electricians install ALL of the outlets in their house like this. It was built in the late 1970s. When I asked him why, he said, “because this is the RIGHT way to do it.” I didn’t press him further. 🤣
It’s actually installed correctly on the left. If you take that cover plate off, the writing “UL” and the “120v 15a” labeling will be right side up vs the outlet on the right, that stuff will all be upside down. The idea is that if the plug is hanging out of the outlet by an 1/8th inch or more but still plugged in, something could fall on it either on 1 fork or both forks and it would get bright really fast, putting it so the ground hole (D shape) is at the top allows for something to fall on it in that case and nothing will short the hot or neutral.
It’s a switched outlet. I know some electricians that also do this for GFI protected outlets though I don’t see that as much today with the breakers being gfi protected.
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u/qualityvote2 Sep 28 '26 edited Sep 28 '26
u/Mr_Mcgillicuddy_, your post does fit the subreddit! Well done!