Are Your Outlets Rightside Up or Upside Down?

top of the morning to you this is mark and i'm here to talk a little bit about outlets being upside down or right side up so which is the correct way to do this i'm going to answer that question so the electrical code permits you to install the outlet this way or this way and in this country the united states we install outlets like so with the ground bar down this is the neutral or these are more common the larger knife or the larger hole is the neutral line the round one is the ground line and then that's the hot line so with a regular duplex outlet we call it duplex it's connected here and here and here and here so they're both wired to work that's basic knowledge but the idea is that ground hot and are neutral hot and ground the idea my understanding was that these outlets were designed to be installed in this manner in this direction with the ground up and the idea is that the ground being up will protect a an object a metal object from coming down if the plug is stuck out a little bit it'll protect the the hot line with the ground plug if you have a plug installed in this in this manner where it's not completely plugged in let's say you plug it in all the way and it gets worked out a little bit the idea is that if something were to fall on it that say is metal it'll land on the ground it'll land on the ground tab or a plug part and won't actually make the connection whereas if it's installed this way and the idea is is that if you're plugged in let's say you've got your vacuum cleaner plugged into your outlet and it comes partly loose and someone comes along and touches both with a metal thing it'll touch both leads hot to ground hot to neutral and create a short circuit a spark an explosion dangerous situation so the idea is is that it's actually not optimal to design to install them this way now we all know there's lots of devices that are designed to be plugged in with the outlet this way a lot of night lights and so forth but interestingly in all hospitals they install outlets this way this is the safer way to do it and if you look at the design of a dryer plug which is a 30 amp plug it has got the two hot leads on either side and the ground tab on top so that if something were to fall on that it would hit the ground tab that is the correct installation for your dryer and i don't know why the tradition is just to install the plugs this way in american homes but this is the way it's done in my home they're installed like this everywhere except for in a couple of outlets where my wife wants to have a little night light or something where it's got a motif and you can't have it upside down so that's the answer the national electrical code allows you to install in either direction and that's the final answer on this so you can go either way either way is correct this way is safer so there you have it so thanks for watching i hope this has been informative for you if it has been or if you want to go ahead and hit the subscribe button and indicate that you'll like it or or you don't like it send me a comment um thank you very much for watching this is mark saying top of the morning to you we'll see you next time bye now

Channel: Top O' The Morning To Ya

Views: 41,048

Keywords: electrical outlets, outlet, electricity, electrician, upside down

Id: 7uV_hQ8csFQ

Length: 4min 42sec (282 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021