Would these be easy enough for a superintendent of a building to put it? Is it as simple as taking out the old outlets or does anything have to be re-configured. Thanx again.
It looks like they are as simple as replacing a socket and cover plate. Does your super do wiring?
Looks like a fun device. I can imagine people having a brain failure, finding the sockets all twisted.
He can do wiring. My future new outlets will confuse my guests because I will purposely make them lopsided.
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Interesting; first time have heard of these!
Initially had visions of duplex outlets revolving wildly ................... OK forget that! :-)
But back to the oft discussed 'Which way is up?'. i.e. Outlets.
Some 40+ year ago when this house was first wired the common practice seemed to be ground pin on top, and it easy to plug in that way using the ground pin as a guide.
The first case where had to reverse a duplex outlet was in the wall behind our North American manufactured fridge, some 30+ years ago. Fridge still iun use btw.
But more and more often, especially in recent years with increasing use of 'Wall Warts' and other low power AC adapters (mainly imported!) they work best 'The other way over'.
Most recently a car battery charger, So maybe a new standard is the bigger ground pin down?
As long as I can remember, in residential work ground pin has always been down, however there are good arguments for ground up and a lot of commercial work is done that way. When I redid my upstairs wiring I installed all the receps ground up. However most right angle cords are designed for ground down orientation...
nate
Ground-pin-down is normal for residential wiring. My PPoE used ground-pin-up, under the assumption that if a metal object fell across the pins it would be better if it were the ground pin. There is no "standard", though.
I find they work best the way it isn't.
Every home I've seen is ground-pin-down, but again there is no law stating that it must be so.
This is an apartment building. It doesn't say UL-approved. Why not? This is what it does say. Is this enough to guarantee it won't fail and cause tenant damages, or to prevent a lawsuit?
It says * Assembled Depth (in.) : 1 in * Assembled Height (in.) : 4.5 in * Assembled Width (in.) : 2.72 in * CSA Listed : Yes What is the CSA? Confederate States of America? Do they have any money anymore? * Color : Ivory * Color Family : Beige/Bisque * Color/Finish : Ivory / Gloss * ETL Listed : No What is the ETL * ETL Safety Listed : No What is the ETL * Electrical Product Type : Outlet * Energy Star Compliant : No * Grounding : Isolated Ground * Hospital Grade : No Hospital grade is more than you need, and it's not that. * Indoor/Outdoor : Indoor * Item Weight : .22 lb * Manufacturer Warranty : 2-Year Limited * Material : Plastic * Maximum Amperage (amps) : 15 A * Maximum Voltage : 125 V * Motion Sensing : No * Number of Outlets : 2 * Number of Switches : 0 * Outlet Location : Wall * Outlet Type : Duplex * Product Depth (in.) : 1 in * Product Height (in.) : 4.5 in * Product Weight (lb.) : .225 lb * Rotating : Yes * Rotating : Yes * Safety Listing : Yes What kind of safety listing? * Surface Mount : No * Tamper Resistant : No * Voltage (volts) : 125 V * Wall Plate Included : Yes * Weather Resistant : No
How can that be? How do they know if the cord will be coming from the right side or the left side of the outllet?
I have seen rotating outlets in schools to make them child proof. the cover part rotates so kids cant stick their fingers inside the slots
Wall warts had the big advantage that with appliances sold in America, they could supply a 110 volt supply, and with appiances sold where 220 was used, they could use the same appliance with a different wall wart.
Now that many/most/someday maybe all supplies are 100 to 240 volts input, there is still the issue of the outlet/plug prong configuration.
They are all arranged so that the cord leaves the plug either in the direction of the ground pin's orientation, or within a 45 degree angle thereof. therefore if you had a typical recep mounted low on the wall with the ground pin oriented up, the cord would be pointing straight up or within 45 degrees thereof with your typical right angle plug.
What someone really needs to do is make a cord with a right angle
**plug** with a rotating head. I'd buy one. Actually I'd probably buy lots of 'em, assuming the price was reasonable.nate
I believe that "tamper proof" receps are/will be required for new residential construction thanks to a recent NEC change. Most of them use shutters over the hot/neutral connections AFAICT. They look like arse to me, but that's possibly because I've been looking at the "normal" style for my whole life (and they really haven't changed much in the intervening time period, although now we do have more color choices than Brown and Ivory, and then there's Decora...) so anything different will look odd.
nate
Most PCs for instance use a standard detachable power cord which can be changed for one with the correct plug for your location. Similarly with stereo/TV equipment, although those tend to use a different connection at the equipment end (although the TV/monitor that I'm looking at to compose this uses a PC style power cord... it is in fact rated for
100-240V, so it should work everywhere that uses a compatible broadcast standard, or as a monitor anywhere that uses the right kinds of input protocols)nate
They had 8 inch extension cords, maybe with just one outlet, like that for a reasonable price at Ollies, a surplus store in the NEast that buys odd lots and unsold merchandies, including food and books. Not everything they sell is like that, some is just new and cheap, and maybe some isn't even cheap (I can't keep track of what prices are there or anywhere). But they did have such cords and I bought one or two just in case, so I have a feeling they didn't sell well on the regular market. This was a couple years ago and I don't think I've seen them there since.
But I have noticed that things that show up as surplus one place often show up loads of places. Again, mayube a lot of that stuff is new, btu I'm sure some is stuff they tried to sell elsewhere. For example, aiui, there were warehouses full of unsold hula hoops when the hula hoop fad collapsed (not that this unsold stuff hurt their profits that much) and 20 years later, they cut holes in them and put in bearings and sold a whole bunch again. I think there is a lot of stuff in warehouses, waiting for someone to want to try to sell it.
There must be brokers somewhere who have lists.
And one dollar store nearby has been selling prong converters, in either direction, for a dollar. They were also available cheap at one other store near me, and maybe for more money at a luggage store.
When I was abroad, they were also cheap, maybe 80 cents, at a hardware store, but first I had to find a hardware store. In two months I only saw two of them. I didn't stay at one -- I stayed in a dorm for two months at 12.50 a night -- but I wonder what they cost at a 5-star hotel.
Install them horizontal and all the up/down arguments go away...
For a basement or any other place that might flood, ground-down makes more sense.
Hmm, this looks like what you were describing
What'd be really great is for surge protector/power strips and UPSes to have those, because those are what's likely to be plugged directly into the wall in my house (had some stuff that done blowed up a couple years ago, *despite* my habit of using surge strips wherever possible.)
nate
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To which I suggest next time I wire my basment, if I ever do, going to put in double duplex outlets one up and one down. Or alternatively one left and one right. In most cases four sockets should do it?
But you should see the mess plugged in next to the spare (other) side of my bed. Lantern charger, bedside radio, cordless phone, cell phone charger etc. etc.
Mine was shorter and maybe cheaper but longer is better, and 5 dollars isn't too much to just have one around.
So they're still selling but not that model. While I brought the topic of surplus stores up wrt stuff that didn't sell, there are a lot of other reasons that stuff ends up there, like companies that go out of business with unsold stock, but not because any product was bad or didn't sell.
There is just loads of stuff out there. At a hamfest this year, I saw new in the box panel meters from 1920 I think it was, complete with box.
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