atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring telephone jack standard for commercial

They are? I usually see the ground on the bottom. Anyway, any reference to an electrician and making sense in the same sentence... c'mon man, let's get serious.

Richard

There is a lot of conroversy about this. I think that's the way they do it in Canada and Australia.

What I would like to know is why the electric outlets are always ORANGE in hospital rooms. Is there a color code for electric outlets?

Around here orange outlets mean dedicated circuit hospitals use a hospital grade outlet marked with a green dot

Ground up was designed for safety when metal face plates were used. At least that's my understanding, I'm no electrician.

The green dot means that the receptacle or plug is hospital grade.

Essential and emergency system receptacles are usually red to signify their use and so that things like coffee pots, microwaves and TVs aren't connected to them. These circuits will be supplied by a backup system such as a generator during utility power failure.

Orange receptacles are usually isolated ground. They will have a green triangle on them and are by no means only found in hospitals. The need for their use however is questionable with modern equipment.

There is absolutley no requirement that dictates in which direction a receptacle is installed or which way the ground should be.

And yes, jacks should always be installed with the pins on top to keep dust from fouling them.

-Hal

Hospitals also have red receptacles. Not sure why.

M.P. I'm in Western Canada, and our outlets have the grounds on the bottom. They may do things differently in Central or Eastern Canada, but by no means is that hows it's done across the board up here.

I was told the red ones are tied into the emergency generator so in a power failure staff can quickly tell which ones are live.

the purpose of ground up is so if a metal object , less say a picture frame where to fall and hit the plug partially disengaging it the metal would hit ground rather than potentially shorting

NEC doesnt address it (ground up or down )

(actually I was being sarcastic as to why the jacks are mounted upside down )


oops missed Hals answer as to the red

Just a matter of time.

I did a residential house for a friend of mine and it failed final inspection because the grounds where installed downward. Inspector stated that it’s not in the NEC, but was recently adopted by the city as a "new" code.

Its nothing more than one more precautionary step towards safety. Should something fall down the wall and land on a 3 prong plug not fully inserted; it touches ground first.

OK, I will throw a wrench into the whole mix here about the ground pin on receptacles. Take a look at Chicago (and possibly Cook County, IL). The trend there is to mount receptacles horizontally. The only place that I know of in the world that actually "requires" this mounting. I assume it's more of an adapted trend over the years (kind of strange to me).

I you don't believe me, watch "New Spaces" on HGTV or any real-estate/home improvement show with Chicago area coverage. Pay close attention. You will notice that all residential receptacles are mounted horizontally AND, they still require EMT conduit as the minimum wiring method. NO Romex allowed at all, anywhere.

Anyway, this city/area has ridiculously strong union holds and insane code requirements. One would think that if there was any validity to the legends about grounding hole placement, these guys would be breaking the rules in both directions.

The code (NEC) is the prevailing authority in most jurisdictions, with potential local ammendments. True, Rusty, there may be some local ammendment but I would be willing to bet that it could be challenged. All of this "it could fall across the prongs" stuff is why they now require arc fault breakers for circuits in bedroom areas. There's only so much in the way of safety measures that can be enforced; most of this stuff is simple common sense.