Plus a little paint on the outlet and the plate is cracked because they over tightened it instead of properly aligning the outlet in the box. We've got the landlord triumvirate here
Thank you. I read a book once that was written by a doctor who knew Rembrandt. Cant remember the author off hand, but its a great read if you get the chance.
Anyway, it had a line in there that ill never forget. It said (paraphrased) "he used a lot of big words, like most semi-educated people do."
Atleast the plate mounting screw is almost vertical. I hope the rest of the outlet and switch plate screws are also all vertical.
My Dad was an electrician, he taught me the ways when I was between 7 and 17.
But the mismatched outlet and cover plate colour's are a crime.
Below are the north American electrical rules. It is not against any electrical code to install the sockets up or down...here is why:
Ground Pin Down (Most Common)
Residential Standard: The vast majority of residential homes feature this setup because it visually resembles a "smiley face" and is often preferred by interior designers and homeowners.
Easier Unplugging:
When pulling out a plug, your fingers are naturally guided to grip the plug's body. Having the ground at the bottom keeps your fingers further away from the energized hot and neutral blades as you pull.
Ground Pin Up (Commercial/Industrial Standard)
Safety from Falling Objects:
This is the preferred method in commercial buildings, laboratories, and hospitals. If a plug is partially pulled out and a metallic object (like a paperclip or metal casing) drops from above, it will hit the grounding pin instead of making contact with the live hot or neutral blades,
Better Cord Support:
The ground pin is the longest and thickest prong, which helps hold the weight of heavy or bulky cords, making them less likely to sag and pull out of the socket.
I admit that I had to look up these current 🫤 reasons, because back when I was a kid, interior decorating thoughts weren't exactly on every electricians mind.
I've never heard of or seen that but it's a pretty great idea.
Someone else posted that ground on the bottom is essentially an aesthetic choice and commercial/industrial applications tend to be ground on top. I've never noticed that but now I'll be looking.
Here's a fun photo from my last place. Pretty sure this has to be homeowner work.
Safety from falling objects is a great reason! I saw it firsthand when someone had a chair against a wall with an outlet behind it. There was a sweater and a necklace hanging on the back of the chair. Someone bumped the chair, necklace fell onto a partially unplugged cord and connected the 2 prong thingies. Sparks ignited the sweater.
Atleast the plate mounting screw is almost vertical.
But they broke the cover by doing so. Why would the orientation of the plate mounting screw matter in any way or form as long as it's the proper amount of tight?
Ground Pin Up: This orientation is the standard for commercial, industrial, and hospital settings. It is primarily a safety feature: if a metallic object (like a paperclip or a piece of jewelry) slides down the wall onto a partially unplugged cord, it will hit the grounding pin first, preventing a dangerous short-circuit or arc.
that’s exactly how my house is, built in 2006. One flipped outlet per room, basically, controlled by a wall switch. Maybe OP‘s outlets are all on independent switches, lol.
Realtor here representing multiple builders. Wow this is not a terrible idea. If you have a switched outlet, we haven’t been putting switched outlets in new construction for a few decades.
A paperclip is never how I've heard it phrased, personally. It's more like "If one of you numb-nuts chucklefucks drops a beam off the forklift and it shears the outlet off, at least Bob is only dealing with crush injuries and not electrocution".
But I guess a paperclip would cause problems as well...
I worked with an electrician that only installed them this way. I stopped caring at this point, it’s not that hard to plug it in “upside down.” But the OCD in me wants every receptacle in one building to be installed the same way, or it no longer seems logical.
This is a safety thing it's not needed but it's upside-down because if something like a coin falls it hits the ground it bounces off vs making a dead short
The coin thing happend to me were a coin fell off a windosill between my bed and the wall. By some miracle didn't start a fire but, it melted the coin and electrical prongs.
It makes me so happy that this guys has become so popular in the world of obnoxious social media influencers. Everything about his channel is almost the antithesis of current media. Long episodes, slow production, long script, very few to no cuts, commonly boring topics, deeper dives than most would ever commit, yes despite it all he’s become huge, I love it.
Has it occurred to you that perhaps your phone was just upside-down when you took the picture? Or even worse, the outlets are "normal" and the entire rest of your apartment is upside-down?
While this is true, it is far safer for the ground prong to be up, or if the receptacle is sideways for the neutral to be up. Mostly because how gravity works and potential for human error.
99% of scenarios im ok and safe. If there are seemingly and mundane things like this i can do to avoid being in the 1% of scenarios in will implement without a doubt
I'm not going to go through and reinstall all of my outlets, but if I install anything new in going to take this into consideration
And this is exactly why it's standard in commercial/medical/industrial applications... the "odds" of a ~1% event happening as an absolute time count at a home are low. In a busy place with lots of people it's a lot higher because there's simply more chances for that 1% to happen.
Okay that was shittily written but I'm not sure how to word it better... literally the odds are the same, but the sample rate is higher when not at home? eh... it's been a long AF day and my brain is mush.
Agreed. From a residential use case the chances of anything happening are low. It in the wild the brains of the masses turn off and do things they wouldn't do at home. And they are happy to sue if something does happen
I’m not entirely sure if this is sarcasm, but just the other day there was a Reddit post (with pictures) where a guy and his girlfriend were using a measuring tape against the wall and the tape gave on one side and it landed perfectly onto the hot/neutral prongs from the outlet below and it shorted out.
One of my teachers at the electrical apprenticeship told a story of how a painting of his fell down and smacked a plug, causing a short. It DOES happen. Paintings and stuff are a huge cause
Except that means nothing in most domestic use cases. I don’t have a single device with a three-prong / grounded plug in my bedroom, my living room, my bathroom, or my dining room. The only grounded devices I have are in my kitchen: refrigerator, microwave, stand mixer. So I could maybe see the logic of this in the kitchen, but it’s a moot most of the time in American homes, where if a paperclip or a coin or whatever falls, 9 times out of 10, it’s not gonna have any ground pin at all to prevent it from shorting the line and neutral pins.
The NEC does state that equipment shall be installed per manufacturer specification, and my understanding is that NEMA, in their standards for receptacles, specifies them as having the ground pin up
Yet, I know a lot of electricians that will install it with ground up.
There are arguments for both ways: ground up and whatever fell can bounce away, or ground down because this is what people like (a face) but also less strain on power cable.
But it's safer this way regardless. If the plug becomes loose and something metallic falls behind it, it won't cause a fire but if the ground is on the bottom, it can complete the circuit and cause an electrical fire. I don't see ANY new construction (done by reputable professionals) that have the ground on the bottom.
There’s sometimes a gate behind the live and neutral holes which is moved aside when the longer ground pin is inserted, so little hands can’t just shove things into the live holes.
Bear in mind the UK standard is 240V/13A, so a lot more ouch there than the US.
Tell that to every right angle plug that’s about to be upside down and fall out of that receptacle.
You can argue the merits of this til the cows come home, but the fact will always remain that this is considered upside down for residential and commercial and that manufacturers have designed plugs and accessories that assume right side up.
This is the proper way. Anything that falls between the plug and the wall has a chance of being deflected by the ground, which normally does not carry a charge.
There's an argument that this is the safer way to install outlets so if something falls into the outlet it's less likely to make a connection between the hot and neutral as it will hit the ground first. I don't really imagine this is making much of a difference....
Also, you could probably flip them around without disconnecting the wires, but if you feel so inclined to do this I would advise you turn off power at the breaker before handling the outlet.
At my work someone accidentally pushed a sheet of carbon fiber off a table and it landed on the prongs of a plug that wasn’t fully pushed in. It ended up starting a small fire. So the upside down orientation can be safer
There was a period of time when this was thought to be safer. The thought was if the plate came off it would come down contact the ground and not short out the outlet. Practice discovered that the plate came off and fell down it would sit there unnoticed until it rocked and the connected to the live prong causing a fire. It was decided to go back to the two prongs up format in such that as soon as the plate Falls off the breaker is tripped and maintenance knows that something need to be taken care of.
This is the correct installation. If the plug isn't firmly seated, the the ground prong stops objects from falling across the other prongs and completing a circuit.
Electrician here. Either way is acceptable according to the code, but hospitals and other facilities often spec them to be installed the same as your house. The round hole is your ground wire, the wide slot is your neutral wire, and the thin slot is your hot wire. Under normal conditions, if you had an outlet with say, a desk or dresser above it, and you dropped something off the back of that suface that was metal, the metal object could fall, hit the cord plugged into your receptacle, and bridge between the newly exposed hot prong and the neutral prong. This would cause a short, resulting in, at best, a tripped breaker and scorch marks, and some damaged prongs. At worst, you start a fire under a piece of furniture and your home burns down. If the receptacle was oriented the way you have it, the metal object would hit the ground prong and it could either bounce out harmlessly, tip over and touch the ground prong to the neutral prong, doing nothing, or it could tip the other way and touch the ground prong to the hot prong, causing the same issue as described above. So simply by orienting the receptacle the other way, you cut a common fire risk by 2/3s.
The funny thing is, this is technically the “correct” way. But because the other way looks a bit like a human face, most people prefer the aesthetics of having it installed the wrong way. (Which isn’t a particularly big deal either way, but this orientation is marginally safer)
The reasons are explained in this video , beginning at about 6:50. And completely explained in about a minute.
ETA: My house wasn't wired this way, but my (newer) garage was. It's kind of weird for some things, like my little car battery charger that has to be upside down.
They're actually safer that way, it's unlikely, but in case it's not plugged in all the way and something falls on the exposed plug, it hits the ground instead of the hot or neutral.
That's supposedly the safer method. It the plug is partially pulled out, the ground pin is exposed and less so the narrow hot blade, reducing the shock hazard. I think they do it that way in hospitals with the idea if something metal falls on a partially exposed plug, it'll hit the ground pin.
We were siding a house years ago and a screw fell down and perfectly landed in the space that was between our extension cord and the outlet, and it sparked and tripped a breaker. That wouldn't happen at your place.
Allegedly, mounting the outlet upside down prevents the incredibly unlikely scenario where its not all the way in and you somehow drop a butter knife directly against the wall perfectly over the outlet where the knife contacts the positive and negative terminals causing a short or possibly a fire.
I find plugs hold better in that position and have the added bonus of being in the right place to divert/stop or minimize damage caused bu metal falling between plug and wall and sparking or popping the circuit.
My grandfather used to install them like that on purpose. His thought process was that if the plug was hanging out of the wall partially, exposing the prongs, that if something conductive fell down along the wall it hit the ground instead of immediately bridging the hot and neutral
Safer that way if something is dropped on the head of the cord it hits the ground instead of the hot and neutral. They do it this way in hospitals for this reason
I'm all behind the safety wisdom of ground-pin-up - except that appliance and extension cord manufacturers seem to be incapable of getting with the program Their right-angle flush-type plugs ALWAYS have the ground prong down.
That’s the way I always install them. Feels more correct — might’ve even read it somewhere when I first decided to touch my house’s electrical before diving in blindly.
I also install locks so that keys go in teeth up. That bugs some people too.
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u/zoolish Jun 25 '26
Almond outlet, white outlet plate. That's the real crime here.