"Upside Down" Receptacle Installation

How do you know which is the top to begin with? The code is silent on the issue.

I'll take a guess here:

He is looking at grounded combination receptacles and visualizing the "old school" ground hole on the bottom installation method.

If he adopts the ground hole on top method, he will not only end up with the receptacle on top, but he will have moved into modern times. ;-)

| The question is-- can I mount it upside down without violating any | electrical codes? |

It's not illegal where I live, but I wonder if you might want to reconsider. There's a reason that the switch is usually on top: With the receptacle on top you're likely to have a wire in the way of the switch.

Although I suspect the code would frown on the switch being positioned such that you flip it down to turn it on (unless you're in europe :-).

The orientation of the u-ground pin doesn't matter, although by preference I like to see it at the top (for when metal items fall on an incompletely inserted plug).

Why would code frown on "down is on"? Doesn't that happen with 3 way switch installations quite often?

When you have an outlet and a switch...doesn't the switch go from side to side (not up/down)?

You can phone your local inspector and ask him/her/shim to come look and tell you what you MUST do.

I'm guessing that would depend on which way you mount the device, vertically or horizontally.

...sounds like he's talking "box the long way/vertical"...then the switch would turn-off on a horizontal plane.

I used to have one of those (combination switch/receptacle) with the switch on the bottom. This device was mounted below a low window and normally used with a cord going out the window for holiday lights.

I removed this when I installed GFCIs for the lights.

You can ("legally") mount it sideways, upside down -- probably inside-out if you could figure out how to insulate the contacts! :>)

Note that all of our (vertically oriented) *outlets* here are arranged with the earth ground at top (like an upside down smiley face -- instead of the smiley face that most folks seem to prefer). Inspectors have noticed this but never complained.

It wont matter how it's mounted as long as it's wired properly and no connections are exposed. The code dont specify anything in regard to mounting positions.

I once lived in a rental house that had 2 switches that were upside down. (not 3 way). That was not a code violation, but it irritated me, so I reversed them. Except for 3 way switches, they should always go UP to turn a light ON. That's just the way it is, and what we're accustomed to. However, electrically, they work the same way.

I stopped to help a couple guys jump start a car. "Black for positive, and...."

Took a lot of effort not to say some thing.

...and this has something to do with the question at hand?

You can use one of these and mount it with the switch on the bottom.

I heard that in England the light switches are usually down for on.

Where I worked the last large 480 volt disconnects to get in to electrical cabinets were color coded so green was off and red was on. They said the green ment it was safe to go into the cabinet and the red ment danger or not safe to go into because the power was still on. That stuff came from Europe.

When a company has 2 different standards, they would be beter just painting over them with the same color as the cabinet.

The "up" as "on" goes way back to the days of knife switches.

The powered line supply entered from the bottom, and you pushed the knife handle "up" to energize the wiring heading over to the monster's table...

They have switches that are off, up in New Zealand too.

They dont know which side of the road to drive on either. :)