I recently reqiresd my girlfriend’s house and she wanted four sets of double-switches (and that place isn’t even that big). As a result, she has more any which-way switches than standard on-up/off-down. She’ll get used to it.
Geshundheit, I say.
And “rewired”, of course.
Thank you very much! You’ve just given me something to add to my list of pranks to play on people. Won’t it be fun next time I’m housesitting to change around all the switches in the house? You rock, Rayne Man! 
You want to be extremely careful doing that, though. The act of rotating the switch may cause the hot wire to come loose from its retaining hole or retaining screw, or you might accidentally touch the brass screws on the side when the hot wire is (or at least should be) attached and that would make the whole experience not-fun real quick.
Well, for you, at least. The people watching you might be amused. If you do take a switch out for any reason, though, do the safe thing and wrap electrical tape around it to cover the brass and silver screws on the sides.
I’m curious - in the U.K., do you have dimmer switches with sliders, rather than a rotary knob, like this one or this one? If so, does sliding them down make the light brighter?
All the dimmer switches I have come across have always had a rotary knob. Sometimes , to switch them on, you turn them from zero and other times you just push the switch and the light comes on at the dimmer setting you last left in on
The dimmer in the room I’m in at the moment is a rotary one. Clockwise=Power on; Anti-Clockwise=Power off.
Never seen either of the examples cited by Early Out.
Typical examples of light switches in the UK:
Single with some helpful advice from those nice people at Staffordshire County Council
Imagine it’s dark - picth black - and you’re in a room…
The movements you’re making with your hands are likely to be palm-down, hands outstreched. It’s possible you’ll slowly paddle your hands in a careful clawing motion hopeing that your fingertips touch upon the wall. When you reach the wall you continue this motion, feeling the surface for a switch - soon enough your fingertips touch a lightswitch. All you need to do is continue the tradjectory your hands were already motioning - from up to down - and the switch will be pushed down, into the on position.
Anything else means you’d have to change the direction of your arm and push UP, against the pull of gravity, using a whole new set of typically weaker muscles and at an unnatural angle for your fingertips. I vote for DOWN = ON
Imagine it’s dark - pitch black - and you’re in a room…
Wall-mounted light switches seem to be generally at about the same level off the ground wherever you live. I’m quite short - 5’ 5" with the wind in the right direction - which puts switches round the level of my shoulder.
Groping about with my arms outstretched, hands palms forward, as envisaged by flapcats, as soon as I hit a wall I reckon I’d be clawing downwards (a) because I am accustomed to switches that go that way but (b) because it is easier to pull your fingertips down a wall than push them up it.
When the standards for light switches were being set there must have been some logic behind it. But given the arguments being rehearsed here I’m buggered if I can see why we over here do it one way and you lot over there do it another. It’s like driving on the “wrong” side of the road …
It should be noted that the types of switches used in the U.S. and the U.K. are different. In the U.S., there are usually toggle switches, where the toggle actually sticks out of the switch plate and you move it by pushing it up and down. In the U.K., there are usually rocker switches, where the switch is a rocker that is recessed into the switch plate and you move it by pushing the top or the bottom into the plate.
In fact the switch and fascia plate are one single unit and the whole thing is secured by two screws into either a metal " back box " recessed into the wall or into a plastic back box which stands proud of the wall.
We do have quite a few toggle switches, too, Wendell, although they are becoming less common.
For some perverse reason, I remember the US convention by imagining some Russian guy named Downisov (down is off). Also reminds me when I showed my wife how to reset circuit breakers. “See how that one says ON” “No, it says OZ” “You’re reading it sideways.”
Yeah, like “I’m down with that.” “Would you go down on me?” and “I’m going downtown to buy a down comfortor.”
Ibid: “I fucked up.” “What a total cock-up.” “The project went toes-up.” “Up yours, pal.”
You don’t hafta vote. Just grab a screwdriver and go to it.
Choice is good.
I’ve lived in apartments in the US with rocker switches.
It’s a shame that philosophy can’t be applied to some US polititians so easily.
seosamh writes:
> We do have quite a few toggle switches, too . . .
Anne Neville writes:
> I’ve lived in apartments in the US with rocker switches.
This is why I wrote:
> In the U.K., there are usually . . .
and:
> In the U.S., there are usually . . .
Yes, and in both countries there are sometimes pull-string controls for lights, where the convention is down = on, down = off, but in the U.S. there are usually toggle switches and in the U.K. there are usually rocker switches.
And thank you, Bryan Ekers, for that important safety tip. I shall strive to prank safely. 