NEMA Outlets Explained

[@Sparky-ww5re]

Very educational. The key takeaway is that NEMA keeps personnel and equipment safe, by creating a national recognized system based on voltage, amperage and phase for specific applications regardless of appliance or equipment manufacturer. Before NEMA became widely adopted, there were accidents. For example in an older home built before 1960, you might come across an old wall outlet with two slots resembling a T turned on this side like this -| |- and had two voltage and amp ratings of 125V-15A/250V-10A and were designed to accept plugs of " | |" or" - - " prongs, and were sometimes used interchangeably with 120 or 240 volts, although they were 120V 99 percent of the time. In the early '50s the "- -" plug got the official NEMA 2-15P, 250V, 15A, two wire nongrounding, a configuration that stands to this day, even though such wiring devices haven't been manufacturered since the late 1960s.