Daftest or most humourous thing you`ve been asked for/about

AJJewsbury:

Chris Pearson:

It's a funny old thing. Sockets unequivocally up = off, down = on. Lights up = off, down = on, both up or both down = off. 


So why is up = on in a CU? ??

It's a peculiarly UK things to have up for off(*) - most of the rest of the world (including the continent) are the other way around - hence when we started using European/international standards for CU components we adopted the more common arrangement. Lightswitches we can still orient whatever way we prefer.


. . .


   - Andy.

Actually this dates back before consumer units. In the houses of my childhood there were no consumers units as such - just large metalclad switches, one for lights, one for power, possibly one for the immersion heater, with separate fuseboards. All these switches were up for on.


An exception is the neon sign switches one sees on the outside walls of buildings with neon lights. These are up for off - so that, if called to a fire, the firefighters can isolate the neon sign by using a pole to knock the switch to the off position.

AJJewsbury:

Chris Pearson:

It's a funny old thing. Sockets unequivocally up = off, down = on. Lights up = off, down = on, both up or both down = off. 


So why is up = on in a CU? ??

It's a peculiarly UK things to have up for off(*) - most of the rest of the world (including the continent) are the other way around - hence when we started using European/international standards for CU components we adopted the more common arrangement. Lightswitches we can still orient whatever way we prefer.


. . .


   - Andy.

Actually this dates back before consumer units. In the houses of my childhood there were no consumers units as such - just large metalclad switches, one for lights, one for power, possibly one for the immersion heater, with separate fuseboards. All these switches were up for on.


An exception is the neon sign switches one sees on the outside walls of buildings with neon lights. These are up for off - so that, if called to a fire, the firefighters can isolate the neon sign by using a pole to knock the switch to the off position.