I am surprised no one has mentioned this yet - I guess we only have them in Australia - little flast plastic “dummy” plug that go into electrical sockets, to stop a kid putting a pin or a nail in there.
Someone more dexterous than a baby would be able to remove these (you have to use a knife or spatular), but AFAIK, they are promoted as products to keep real young 'uns safe. Dunno why else you’d have them - they are pretty annoying otherwise.
I have seen them in Target and so on. I’d offer to send some over, but your crazy american powerpoints are a different form factor to ours.
I’m currently living in an apartment house built in 1947. The outlets on the woodframe walls are all about a foot or so off the ground. On the adobe brick walls, most of them are three feet or so off he ground.
Plus, most of them are only two prong, which is really disconcerting and inconvenient.
The power point plugs that abby mentions seem to be one of the more common safety features in many homes and businesses. I know when I was working in a doctors surgery we had all safety plugs in all the power points not in use.
In the house where I grew up, (built early 50’s) the outlets have a special spring-loaded plastic front piece that rotates to cover the 2 holes when not in use.
To use it, you hold the plug with the 2 prongs above each other vertically, insert them about 1/8 inch into the slots, then rotate the plug a quarter turn. Now you can push the plug in the rest of the way and actually make electrical contact. When you pull the plug out, the plastic front piece rotates back to cover the holes again. So a child poking a fork, etc. into it can’t reach the actual electrical contact points – only inert plastic is exposed.
Recently, my Mother was showing them to someone with a new baby, and I said that I thought they weren’t really effective – that because of the spring loaded rotating cover, I found them more fun to play with than a regular plain outlet. Mother responded that they actually were quite effective – that by the time I had enough dexterity to play with the covers, I was old enough to know not to stick things into the outlets. And I guess she must be right – I survived my childhood.
These were all old 2-prong outlets, before grounded plugs were common. I don’t know if such things are available now, for grounded outlets.
The “dummy” plugs are readily available in the US and highly recommended for childproofing. Of course, my kids figured out how to remove them before they were two years old. They never got shocked but they got yelled at more than a few times.
OK, with a bit of searching I found something similar to the outlets I described.
They’re called self-closing outlet covers, see picture here.
Note that these are cover plates you put on top of the outlet, while the ones I described were built into the outlet itself, and they slide sideways rather than rotate.
But it seems to be pretty much the same principle. And probably effective for the OP in baby-proofing his outlets that are near the floor. Certainly cheaper than trying to move them higher up on the wall.
I ask because there is now new legislation in place in the UK to ensure that in all new houses (extensions and renovations are exempt) the sockets have to be a minimum of 450mm above finished floor level and all light switches have to be a maximum of 1200mm high. This is part of DDA (Disability Discrimation Act) requirements for new houses, to enable wheelchair users (and frail / elderly) to reach sockets and switches with greater ease.
Is there any thought / possibility of future legislation like the UK DDA happening in the US?
In addition to the child-proof outlet covers that have been mentioned, we had some when our youngest was little that were great. The problem with the little plastic ones that fit into unused outlets is that they only help with unused outlets; how to keep the little one from unplugging stuff? We got some in the baby-proofing section of Wally World that are like oval domes with a notch at the top and at the bottom. You plug stuff into both plugs of an outlet, put the cover on and screw it in place; the cords stick out the notches. Babies can’t get it off (or at least our couldn’t, and there’s not much she couldn’t figure out at a young age), and you can still use the outlet.
As to why they’re on the floor. . .I agree with everyone else. They’re higher than floor level in places where that makes sense, like the bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, etc. Unfortunately, our bathroom has no outlet at all (yikes!), but other bathrooms I’ve seen have a couple counter height, or right above the medicine chest.
Surely, as the elecricity comes in from cables under street level, the majority of plug points are low down to minimise the costings for in-wall cabling to reach higher up the wall?
In fitted kitchens, access to such low down plug points would be difficult, so these are brought to a useful level for the applications.
Technically, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere they can’t go, but I reckon that the default setting is low down on the wall because of cost. Except where flooding is a possiblility!
Do you really have sockets in bathrooms in the US? In the UK and Ireland you can’t have a socket there at all - you have to wire appliances eg heaters in directly but you can put a low ampage socket in for shavers - as part of a light fitting.
This seems to be perfectly sensible to me - you shouldn’t mix water and electricty!
Please read my above post again.
Here it is.
"*Generally, the ADA (disabilities act) requires an outlet in a residence to be at least 14 inches to center off the ground. Oultets between (14 inches) and (5 feet 6 inches) off the floor are considered to be in the realm of legal spacing per NEC.
((Chefguy, yes we use our hammer as the spacer between the floor and the bottom of the box. The hammer is 14 inches long, which puts the box at about 16 inches to center.))
I believe the height restriction for a switch is 42 inches per ADA.
It`s been a while since I roughed a house.
The horizontal spacing of the outlets is also spelled out in the code book."*
Oultets are not spaced every six feet, it is every twelve feet – so that if a lamp is between the two the typical 6 foot cord will reach either of the two.
From there the NEC has a plethora of other outlet placement and restrictions for counter top, bathroom, basement, and any other location you can think of.
Pergau - Yes outlest are required in the bathroom. They must be GFCI devices. Very sensitive to stray currents.
I`ve got the NEC right here in front of me if there are any other questions.
Plus I happen to be an electrician.
Apologises. I did read the whole thread (honest), but must have skimmed your post too quickly to register the content. My mistake. Thanks for pointing your post out again.
Yes, we have sockets in the bathroom, but they have to be wired to a Ground Fault Interrupter. Don’t know exactly how it works, but it shuts off the outlet nearly instantaneously if there is a short or some other irregularity (ie. you drop the hair dryer in the sink).
One thing I noticed when visiting family last weekend is that their light switches and door knobs are generally a lot lower than in my house (my house was built in the '50s, theirs–one in the '70s and one in the '90s). I realized that I really really really like my switches and doorknobs higher (I’m ~6’4"). So, I don’t know if it’s a law or code, but from what I’ve seen it seems to be a trend that these things are placed lower in more recent dwellings.
The UK and Ireland are actually the only countries I’ve ever encountered this regulation in - most other countries seem to trust people not to shower and blowdry at the same time
