Note that while both switches appear to be in the same position, the UK switch (for the bathroom through the door) is off, while the US switch is on. In other words: in the UK, down is on; in the US, up is on.
From my end, I can state that the US switch is standard (except for 3-way arrangements).
Now for my questions…
Is the UK switch orientation standard? (the folks I asked said so)
Why are they opposite?
Did they ever use lever-style switches in the UK (similar to the US one)?
This arrangement comes from history using big switches. If something heavy falls on the switch, or if you were to lean against it by mistake (or even by self weight), the switch should shut off because off is safer. This way there is a lesser chance of things getting accidently turned on.
In the UK the switches in the house do get turned on in the down position. But check the circuit breaker, more often than not, especially if the circuit breaker switch is heavy, it gets turned on in the switch up position.
I think the mechanics of the UK switch has been misunderstood. You press the top of the switch inwards for ‘on’ and you flick the American switch up for ‘on’ up and top are not opposite, they are similar.
btw, I always thought UK switches were random in respect to which way they switched on or off. depending entirely on how the electrician decided to wire them. a basic switch will do the same job regardless of which way round it is wired.
in my old school there was a many switch panel for multiple lights in some classrooms, some of the switches were up for on, and others (on the same panel!) were down for on. suggesting that the electrician didn’t care which way the switch had to be to turn the light on, as long as the switch worked.
I failed to read the bit in the OP that said the switch was for the bathroom through the door which is unlit. I still believe that it is random in most places.
btw how is ‘up’ safer than ‘down’ for on? I would have thought it would be the other way round - imagine falling over in the dark. from the floor it would be easier to switch a switch down (on) than up.
Just because I know you are all dying to know, in Australia, switches are on when down, and off when up.
But before any of you 'Merkins suggest that this is the opposite to 'Merika, can I just point out that as we are in the Southern Hemisphere, and you are in the Northern Hemisphere, we actually push our switches in the same direction to turn them on as you do, it’s just that you are standing on your heads, so from your perspective, it seems different.
The recent (20 years) lighting switches in my house were done by cowboys, so they’re fairly free with their orientations.
Until recently, we did have a lever-style in the toilet. It would have been installed ~50 years ago and flipped up for on. Note, that might just be coincidence.
(As to the road thing, at least I can draw my sword unimpeded.)
It all depends on the way the electrician happened to install them; I have a lever switch in my office (quite an old building); the ‘down’ position is on. Most rocker switches are oriented so that pressing the bottom part switces them on (this is analogous to the lever switch being in the ‘down’ position); on switches mains outlet sockets (the older ones of which sometimes have lever switches), the ‘down’ position is on (often the rocker types have a red mark on the top part of the rocker to help identify whether the supply is on or not).
I didn’t know that ‘up’ is on in the US; is this so that a falling object wouldn’t accidentally activate the lights?
Bet you don’t, once your arms are full and you realise you can’t switch the light on with an elbow.
As stated before (by Lobsang), the switch is entirely up to the say the switch wire is connected. I have some switches in my house where up=on, and some where down=on.
Haven’t got around to amending this yet.
As for style, there are hundreds of possibilities, from lever to circular dimmer to flat switch to sensor. Same range here as anywhere else.
of course if you have a situation where a single light can be switched on and off by either of a pari of switches, then the position of each individual switch in relation of the illumination is not fixed.
Well, to be exact, it’s not the way the switch is wired - there’s only one way to wire a simple switch. It’s whether the switch is put into the box right-side up or upside down that determines which position is off and which is on. It’s entirely arbitrary. It can be changed at will by removing the switch and rotating it 180 degrees. Mandatory disclaimer: don’t go fooling with switches or any other electrical items withou knowledge and experience.
Some people seem to be claiming that there is no standard for UK light-switch orientation. Just to clear up the original Q, they are (almost) all as per your illustration - a flat “rocker switch”, on which you press the bottom (so that the top flips outwards) to switch it on. (I say “almost all” because I have seen a couple installed upside down.)
No - it’s the other way round. Pressing the top of the switch inwards turns it off.
This brings up two other questions:
Are most US light switches the type you illustrated (a lever rather than a rocker) or do you also use the flat rocker switches?
What about electrical sockets? Do you have a switch to turn the power off, or is it “always on” so you just pull out the plug to cut the power? (This is how the UK ones look with the switch in the off position).
Most of the switches in my apartment use ‘up’ for ‘on’, but the one in the bathroom is opposite. Hmm.
North American electrical plugs are ‘always on’.
One of the few things I remember about that book ‘The Plague Dogs’ is the dogs’ conception of the ‘magic gesture’ that the humans used to bring light when they entered a room. Not knowing about switches, this was the way the dogs interpreted someone swiping at a switch to turn it on…
Well, the outlets can be the GFIC type, used in bathrooms and kitchens. Those will always be on until something happens to flip the breaker there at the source–water getting in the socket, for example, or strange power demands.
The lever switch I provided is the standard style in the US. Actually, if you go to your local home store, you probably won’t find any dark-brown Bakelite switches anymore. I tried to find the more typical white or creme-colored switch for my sample photo, but all of the switches in my house are either old ugly ones, or I have replaced them with big flat non-typical rocker switches (in the American orientation :)).
Sunspace got this one. I might add that we have no fancy mechanisms within the socket as you do in the UK. As I had it explained to me, in (some? all?) British sockets, the power doesn’t go on until the grounding pin hits bottom. American sockets have simple spring contacts, unless you install the fancier GFCI sockets mentioned by asterion.
