Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Saturday, April 5, 2025

The Ground Thing

Working as an electrician has ruined me in a very specific and weird way. I can’t watch a movie, video, or even look at photographs of a building’s interior without trying to see the orientation of the receptacle outlets. Have they been installed with the ground up or the ground down?

This is a pretty big deal for an electrician.

I’m telling you, if a video of Salma Hayek appeared in front of me in which she was strutting through a building in a skimpy bikini, I’m going to be distracted by every receptacle she wafts past.

Me? I’m ground down all day long. There are arguments both for and against this orientation. I’ll spare you details on that and just say that I was trained as an apprentice to mount receptacles with the ground down, and I continue to run with that.

Interestingly enough, the National Electrical Code is silent on this. Furthermore, neither receptacle manufacturers nor the National Electrical Manufacturers Association make any recommendation in either direction.

So, to all of you receptacles out there, I just want you to know—Salma Hayek or not—I’ve got my eye on you.

Ground Up

Ground Down

—Mitchell Hegman

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