Code doesn’t specify the orientation of a standard duplex 15 or 20 amp receptacle. Personally, I’m of the position that they should be ground pin up, for exactly the situation you specified. But, since there isn’t a code mandate, residential customers and the occasional commercial customer will make you flip them because “they look weird upside down” (ground up). I think a lot of this comes from the old K&T days when it was standard practice to place the hot terminal on the right and neutral of the left, assumably because most people are right handed, and they added the ground on the bottom to make the face as it was more aesthetically pleasing. Granted, this last bit is all pure speculation.
The fact of the matter is that since I can’t draw a code reference to ground up, I install residential ground down. On commercial jobs I’ll ask the client directly and explain the hazard, since they’re more liability minded, and they’ll typically go ground up except in reception areas and the like. People are funny.
Thanks for the clarification. I assumed it was code only because I wouldn’t know where to look to find out, and you see it everywhere.
