The NEC isn't gospel, anywhere. Damn near every locality STARTS with the NEC and then adds their own local additions.
If you spend some time with google, I suspect you will encounter such places.
Correct, NEC does not (yet) indicate an orientation requirement but, it has been common pratice to have the pin down and in some cases appliance cords require it. Also there are cases where the pin needs to be up for different appliance cords to fit. What ever the case is, you flit the plug or lay it sideways.
Now, there comes issues within local areas and astablishments where they have additional requirements and when doing business there you need the supplemary manuals.
You can get U-grd angle plugs that allow you to rotate the cord cap angle via a screw and index. Those work out well in most cases.
We always send equipment out equipment with selectable angle plugs.
Jamie
You (or I or anyone else) couldn't possibly know what "Damn near every locality ..." does.
And, the NEC certainly is gospel (i.e. legally binding) where it has been adopted by the local government. To claim it isn't gospel anywhere is wrong. It is gospel (legally binding) in my town, in all of the surrounding towns that abut my town, and in two of the counties that abut my county.
I don't have direct knowledge about the other nearby locations. I have no direct knowledge of the following, but I was taught that the vast majority of locations within the US have adopted and are governed by the NEC although all have not adopted the same year for the NEC. After all, it is a National code. Also taught that some major cities, like New York and Chicago, have their own electrical codes.
So what is your point? Is it that a locality could have an electrical requirement that mandates receptacle orientation? Yes that is certainly possible. Does the local code with which you are familiar have such a requirement?
It is interesting to me that a discussion of receptacle orientation seems inevitably to tie in to the electrical code. I think Bob Englehardt was the first to mention it in this thread when he said: "It smells to me like the product of a electrical-code writer having too much time on his hands." and was mentioned again by Phil Hobbs and KRW in their and my replies.
It's pretty obvious that when people are talking about a requirement that receptacle orientation be mandated, the code would be the proper place for such mandate, so the tie in to discussing it is logical.
What better place for such mandate, if it is to be mandated, than in the National code than in some huge number of "local" codes?
Ed
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