When electricians arrange for one have of am electric receptacle to be switched and the other half un-switched, is there a convention they use for which half is on top and which on the bottom?
- posted
17 years ago
Swtiched/non-switched receptacle; which one on top?
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- posted
17 years ago
In my corner of the universe, the top outlet was always the switched one. No idea if that was 'official', or just the learned custom of the half-dozen electricians I worked with, who were sort of a chronological progression with some overlap.
aem sends...
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- posted
17 years ago
My personal preferrence, switched on the bottom .... why? That is usually where something is plugged in for a long time, like a lamp. If you need to use the "always-on" outlet, you don't have the "fight" the lamp cord to plug something in. Not a big deal, but that's how I like it.
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- posted
17 years ago
don't go talking common sense here.
:)
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- posted
17 years ago
I'd want the switched outlet at the top, because something you need to plug in temporarily may be a wall-wart with a polarized plug. Plug that in the top and you lose use of the bottom outlet.
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- posted
17 years ago
Me too. The lamp cord would be in the way.
Having the hot one on the top means you don't have to bend as far to plug in a vacuum or similar device.
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- posted
17 years ago
Yes. I'd want the switched outlet at the bottom for that reason. That is, until I encountered wall warts with polarized plugs.
Even better to have a few receptacles at switch height, where they're easily accessible.
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- posted
17 years ago
Well now that you mentione it, this particular one is at switch eeight, only about 4 inches from the switch to the laundry room. But I still was happy to read this discussion, because I may redo other receptacles and this way they would all be alike.
Right now it is all switched, in parallel with the overhead light, so it's easy to turn off the light and the radio at the same time when I leave the room.I liked the switched part, but I needed to use a VCR tjere temporarily and turning off the light turned it off too.
Thanks.