When Standard Is Not a Standard

Having a standard is a beautiful thing. While US sockets are really shitty in general, I love how standardized they are. Every single apartment I ever lived in had the same double outlet setup. Its welcoming smiley face just awaits a device to power.

Except that this is not the standard orientation.

The standard orientation is actually upside-down of what everybody is used to. Well, when I say “the standard”, I say this loosely since it’s not part of NEC (National Electrical Code) as such. But, if you go to any hospital or industrial setting, chances are that you will find it in the “correct” orientation.

If you want to hear more then you ever cared about this, you can watch Technology Connections dealing with this exact topic. In any case, I am not watching that video ever again as it made me cry for Schuko.

In any case, I was mounting some stuff on the DIN rail and I had a choice to make. The way I planned to route wires and the text on the socket itself were both pointing toward “the standard” orientation. So I ran with it.

Do you see the problem here?

While orientation of the socket itself is not really defined, position of live and neutral wires is. In “the standard” orientation, the hot goes on the left and the neutral wire goes on the right. But here, my second socket actually has the neutral on the left. And yes, I did check that screw feeds into the socket straight up.

Since the other way of finding the neutral - its longer slot - points toward the neutral on the right, it’s obvious that markings are in fact incorrect. Manufacturer, instead of fixing the mold, just decided to sell devices nonetheless. I mean, US outlet is as shitty as it gets so it’s not like swapping the live and the neutral wire will make it any worse.

And, in reality, there is no real issue if you swap these wires at the outlet side. Heck, my belowed Schuko goes either way and even burned one is way safer than any US outlet. Outside of a few contrived examples involving houses with ancient wiring without ground, or really specific dumb equipment, which wire is live and which one is neutral doesn’t really matter.

But I find it amusing that product having such a strong opinion about the ground pin position can be so nonchalant when it comes to position of its current carrying wires.

PS: And yes, if I didn’t have two of them side by side, I would have probably missed wire labeling issue.