... why domestic light switches are mounted "upside-down" in North America (up is on) compared with the UK (Up is off) ?

 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by GHD

1 hour ago, GHD said:

... why domestic light switches are mounted "upside-down" in North America (up is on) compared with the UK (Up is off) ?

 

 

That's weird. Seems logical the other way around like we do it. If the switch is down for on, then you can see the red indicator on the switch. Seems natural to move it down for on. The only time I've seen up for on is in applications when you don't want to accidentally knock a low mounted switch down, thus on.

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by martin-w

1 hour ago, GHD said:

... why domestic light switches are mounted "upside-down" in North America (up is on) compared with the UK (Up is off) ?

 

Well it does follow the logic of almost every other switch out there that I know of...  In my race car down means all the switches are off.,  I have to flick them up to power them on.  Thinking about most aircraft lighting switches left up are off you toggle them down to turn them on. I would think that is also a gravity thing.  Better for something to default to "on" if it falls down.   In my travels it's only UK and Ireland that have them reversed though...  In certain areas they are actually left/right to prevent them being flipped during earthquakes.  For the most part though the only place they are "upside down" compared to the rest of the world is the UK and Ireland though.  Then there are 3 way switches where a light can be off with a switch in the "on" position if another on the circuit is off.   Furthermore now you have pushbutton on/off switches where push once is on and push again is off.  No direction or indication.  

As for my wife and I the light switches in our house are pretty much redundant.  Everything is Smart home at this point.  Lights are either voice, motion, app controlled or automated.  It's VERY rare we use a physical control for anything in the house anymore LOL.    

Generally though if something is done differently it's only in the UK and Ireland at this point LOL... So the question should be why does the UK persist on doing things opposite to the rest of the world LOL... 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by psolk

10 minutes ago, psolk said:

 

As for my wife and I the light switches in our house are pretty much redundant.  Everything is Smart home at this point.  Lights are either voice, motion, app controlled or automated.  It's VERY rare we use a physical control for anything in the house anymore LOL.    

 

Then the hackers bust your code and lights begin turning on mysteriously, the doorbell rings and nobody there!  The door locks are unlocked when you know you've locked them.  Mystery pizzas start arriving.  Ack!  It's the zombie apocalypse! 🧟‍♂️

20 minutes ago, charliearon said:

Then the hackers bust your code and lights begin turning on mysteriously, the doorbell rings and nobody there!  The door locks are unlocked when you know you've locked them.  Mystery pizzas start arriving.  Ack!  It's the zombie apocalypse! 🧟‍♂️

Haha!!  Not that bad it is fun to mess with the Mrs. when I'm on the road LOL... 

I'd advise anyone creating a "Smart Home" to have either a completely separate IOT network or have some sort of microsegmentation, group or object based policy on their networks.   Working for a company that does this for Stadiums and Buildings does give me a bit of an edge 😉 

Now ideally I'd like my house to start really being "smart."  That means like our offices the air blows harder where the sun shines and follows that logic throughout the day, CO2 levels are monitored and air in the room is cycled when the levels are high enough it impacts human behaviors (tired/less focused etc), We found recycling the air in a typical conference room after 40 minutes prevents people from getting tired and losing focus.  I'd like the AC levels and even the window dimming to be dynamic to the sun and occupancy as well.  It's all feasible it's just cost prohibitive at the consumer level.  Now at the corporate level this sounds excessively expensive but it also means the entire building is powered by switches/POE instead of copper.  We can eliminate thousands of pounds (weight) and millions of dollars building over ethernet opposed to traditional construction.  I think in NYC and London it was something like 10,000 pounds of weight for every 1M sq ft in copper and weight reduction.  Those aren't small numbers!  It's how the latest cruise ships are all being built for the weight reductions as well.

This stuff really intrigues me if you can't tell 🙂  It's the first time the network is more than "the plumbing" we are an actual business enabler.... The use cases all of this drives is mind blowing.  My favorite is one of our hospital build outs.  Using smart lighting when they call a code blue (emergency) we can illuminate the lighting for everyone required and being paged from white to blue from where they are to the room needing care.   They don't even have to think about where the emergency is or how to get there.  Just follow the blue lights as fast as you can.  It's game changing in terms of treatment times.  Things like that are really rewarding and unthinkable without all of this built out from the Network up at the core of the building.  

So in short.  Switches are so yesterday LOL 🙂  

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by psolk

1 hour ago, psolk said:

In my race car down means all the switches are off

 

I think that's a safety thing though. Easy to knock a switch down and thus on, so they do it the other way around. Not an issue for something benign, but if its something that could have negative consequences if it came on accidentally it could be an issue. 

2 hours ago, psolk said:

For the most part though the only place they are "upside down" compared to the rest of the world is the UK and Ireland though. 

 

My friend Wikipedia says...

 

Quote

In the US, Canada, European countries, Russia, etc., it is usual for the "on" position of a toggle switch to be "up", whereas in many other countries such as the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand (Commonwealth countries) and Ireland, it is "down".

 

I wrongly assumed  pretty much everybody had down for on. I had no idea so many countries in the world were doing it wrong, silly people. 😀

 

Not the case for  two way switches of course. At this very moment, one of my hall switches is  is up for on, also one of the two landing switches is. As you'd expect. 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by martin-w

1 minute ago, martin-w said:

I wrongly assumed  pretty much everybody had down for on. I had no idea so many countries in the world were doing it wrong, silly people. 😀

This is similar to the age-old argument about how the roll of toilet paper should be placed on the roller! My belief is that it should be over, not under!

Similarly, switches should be UP for "on" and DOWN for "off..." 😜

4 minutes ago, n4gix said:

This is similar to the age-old argument about how the roll of toilet paper should be placed on the roller! My belief is that it should be over, not under!

Similarly, switches should be UP for "on" and DOWN for "off..." 😜

 

Definitely correct re toilet roils. That's how cats do it so it must be right.

 

What must really fox... pretty much most of the you guys is our domestic "ring final circuit", instead of the radial circuits most countries use. ⚡I'm used to working on them but I admit, radial circuits make far more sense. 

 

Edited March 13, 20224 yr by martin-w

Could it have anything to do with which side of the road we drive on?🚘

25 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Definitely correct re toilet roils. That's how cats do it so it must be right.

Well, if one has cats, then "under" on the TP roll might be better. That way the cats can't "unspool" the TP all over the loo!

For humans however, finding the end of the roll is far easier when the TP roll is "over..."

2 hours ago, n4gix said:

Well, if one has cats, then "under" on the TP roll might be better. That way the cats can't "unspool" the TP all over the loo!

 

Well yes, which is why cats like it "over" so they can.