My ground is down but I have noticed in other homes they are ground up.

I have never seen that before but I guess it really doesn't matter? Strange, if you ask me though!

I believe the argument is that ground up, the receptacle will hold up longer as the plug has less of a pull with the prongs on the downside. The "theory" is that the weight of the plug is supported better by the prongs being down with the ground up vs. the other way around. The argument is that the plug will stay more secure in the receptacle with the prongs being down. I guess it boils down to how often you plug/unplug that particular cord.

The argument I've heard is that by placing the ground on top, if the plug was not pushed all the way in and something conductive fell over the plug it would land on the ground and not cross between the hot & neutral.

I also think it is somewhat regional. Ground up is much more common in Western PA and I never saw it in Maryland.

Mine are ground up but there are unintended consequences like nightlights end up upside down as the neutral switches side when you flip it over. Also some power strips have flat lugs with the wire coming out and down but when you flip it the wire goes up and out away from the plug.

Now that you're looking you'll see it everywhere if you are in one of the areas where it is more prevalent.

I would not like the unintended consequences. Man, ANOTHER thing to add to my list of things to make sure of.

Hmm. So, am I the only person who'd be driven crazy by the outlets' distraught little upside down faces?

Another thing to add to the list, indeed.

I've heard the same thing as klabio, if you install them with the ground up there is less risk for something conductive to fall or slide on to it.

Having said that many now install them 'sideways' on the baseboards with the neutral up. Best of both worlds in my opinion.

You get used to the upside down faces.

The upside down leg lamp nightlight, however, leaves nothing to the imagination.

Here is a link that might be useful: Major Award

LOL !!!!!

IBM requires the ground prong to be placed up in all of their buildings in order to prevent short circuiting from objects dropped from the back of desks.

In her college dorm room last year, my daughter's thin chain necklace fell behind her desk across the prongs of her printer plug shorting the circuit tripping the circuit breaker with a bright flash.

Rather than requiring the prong to be placed up at potential desk locations it is best to require that they all be placed up.

There is no code requirement but ground prong up has been proposed and rejected.

I am so glad I asked. Thanks for your responses. The more I think about it, the more I'm ok with them ground up. This just seemed absolutely upside down to me and I know that some night lights and other items would end up being upside down, which led me to believe that ground up is upside down. I will just avoid purchasing anything that would end up upside down. It just annoyed me the other night b/c as we were working and I went to plug an extension cord in, I went to plug it in ground down like I'm used to and forgot. I will just learn. It sounds safer to go ground up.

Many LED nightlights and combination nightlight/emergency flashlights often don't have a ground prong and most grounded LED devices can be mounted in either direction.

Whichever way you go, you might want to reverse it for switched outlets only so it's easy to tell which are which.

lol re "upside down faces"...

Use 'safety outlet covers' aka plug covers. Very low cost, very big safety factor. No faces, although if you want faces, you can certainly draw them on.