this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025

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155

High outlets (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by Aarrodri to c/asklemmy

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm visiting Norway, and see many outlets way up high. Some are mid wall , some are down to the bottom..but many up high. Saw someike this since the airport. Any idea why they do this?

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[–] [email protected] 106 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

As several people have mentioned, it's for lights. The reason is, in Norway any electrical work needs to be done or certified by a licensed electrician. Since light fixtures are a fairly commonly replaced item, the current trend is for ceiling mount points to come with a nearby electrical plug so you can switch out a light fixture without shelling out for an electrician. These power outlets are connected to a switch elsewhere so you can flick the lights on and off like normal.

Visit [email protected] for all your Norwegian and reindeer trivia 😁

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This rule exists in Germany as well but we just ignore it. Nothing easier than hanging up a new lamp.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Germans can BREAK rules?! My worldview is shattered.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Must be the Norwegian blood I get from my mother.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I'm a general contractor and I hate that I can't do even the most basic electrical installations. Something like connecting the light for bathroom mirror. I could do it in two minutes for no extra cost to the customer, but now I need to call in a sparky instead and have them charge the customer 60 euros for doing the exact same thing I would have done. I simply just can't risk it because if something happens the insurance wont cover any of it and it's all on me. Makes me feel so stupid to tell the customer that I can't do something this basic.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Yeah, I've found Norwegian bureaucracy to be... Something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Reminds me of the too-powerful unions in Chicago. You can't even change a lightbulb or plug in a computer on the convention center floor. You have to wait for an electrician.

I'm pro-Union, but within reason. When they get out of control (looking at you, cops) they need to be cut back. Like kudzu.

[–] Aarrodri 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the answer! Yes indeed these come with light switch..but funny enough..the room lights are not connected to these.. they have an extension going all the way down to the floor😂

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Lol. Looks like somebody got lazy and took the easy way out

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Electrical work in Sweden shall be done by an electrician as well, but we just have the plug on the ceiling, so it's not as ugly (the base of the hanging lamp hides it).

Norway has so many inane rules. If they didn't have oil, their country would have shut down decades ago.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Norway has so many inane rules. If they didn't have oil, their country would have shut down decades ago.

As a relative newcomer, I shall decline to comment 😂

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Live in Sweden, not true for pretty much all apartments I have lived in on the west coast. And it was quite a few because foreigner coming to Sweden and not buying a place to stay immediately means moving at least once a year. Not one had the lamp plug where the lamp was, all the plugs are at a nearby wall so you have to hang the cable over to the lamp.

Not saying what you say doesn't exist, but to my experience it is not standard.

The newer apartments have different plugs though, like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_for_Connection_of_Luminaires

[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Those are usually connected to a light switch for connecting ceiling lights. Especially in older houses from when it was common to have many dim lights instead of few bright ones.

Seeing as it's grounded, that one is new-ish... before the 80's, it would probably not have been grounded.

Also, close to a window tells me that its primary use nowadays is for christmas lights.

Source: am noggie

[–] Aarrodri 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Makes sense.. but they opted to use different outlet for lights.. but makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

The bottom outlet is closer and wall lamps come with switches and cables that go down. The high outlets would probably be used for ceiling lamps. Mounting a beside lamp in a living space however is definitely a choice

[–] dual_sport_dork 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Lots of reasons. In residential settings, wall mounted clocks and lighting are the usual reason.

You see a lot of these in commercial buildings here, also. Often they're even in the ceiling, not even high on the wall. It provides guaranteed access to an outlet that's not blocked by furniture for use with cleaning and maintenance equipment. Vacuums, floor polishers, floor drying blowers, that sort of thing. Having the cord come from a high point also makes it easier to keep it running over top of furniture and obstructions when it will only be used temporarily rather than snaking around the legs of desks and chairs and so on. And it also discourages passers by from fucking with them if they haven't brought a short stepladder or a foot stool or something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I know nothing about Norway but in the US in the early to mid 20th century, electric clocks used the 60 hz frequency of the electrical grid to keep accurate time. They even used to keep that frequency carefully calibrated for that purpose.

But a typical clock outlet is a touch lower then the one here and would never stick out like that. Often they were even set in a bit because you'd typically put the (big, round, analog) clock over the outlet to hide it.

[–] thermal_shock 7 points 5 days ago

they look like teletubbies

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That sounds like some new modern slang. Hi outlets! Whattup my outlets?

[–] Death_Equity 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You can put down the bowl dad, you're as high as giraffe pussy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I am one high outlet ... Like the one in the pic.

[–] Upperhand 8 points 6 days ago

Is there a light switch that controls it? Maybe lighting options that can hang.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I wish my house had these for lights and all the other crap I have plugged in high up on a shelf.

[–] Death_Equity 1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It is pretty damn easy to add an outlet above an existing outlet, as long as you can user a drywall saw without injuring yourself. Very basic electrical, drywall, and paint.

The only way you would get yourself in trouble is if you are overloading the circuit, but the fuse for that circuit should keep you from being too stupid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Careful, you might get banned from Norway talking about such things.

[–] Death_Equity 1 points 5 days ago

What are they gonna do? Deny me rotting fish, universal healthcare, quality sauna, and a quality of life so good that I can't imagine it? Bitch, I am an American, we thrive in spite of quality of life and fermented food products that we haven't appropriated because it doesn't agree with our collective food heritage items by UK, German, Italian, and Mexican citizens that invested early in our cultural appropriative tapestry.

They would have savagely killed a lot more Russians if we hadn't had our economic interests compromised by German economic interest twice. They owe us for not baring an inconsequential amount of Russian lives weighting on them because Nordic countries are unitonically as beautifully savage as their lands.

I'll just say it, the Nords scare Americans because they are so happy and great but could kill us 5:1 because they have a savagery that is boiling beneath a surface of civility that masquerades as genuine contentment with a peaceful life. We have guns 10:1 vs civilians, but the highest per capital civilian gun ownership means little when you see a bloodeagle down the road. We are grateful that we aren't the most convenient outlet for their hidden rage fostered by hundreds of years of content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Yeah I'm just lazy and it would be a pain. I've actually already added a whole new circuit in the garage for a welder. It's just easier if everything is already there.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

In Japan, they're typically for aircon units, but I don't see anything indicating such would be mounted there nor does it look to be an exterior wall for the rest of the unit.

[–] Pissmidget 4 points 6 days ago

I use mine for my lamps. Got four outlets like that in my living room.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Ideal to plug in some christmal lights and attach them to the window?

[–] apocalypticat 3 points 6 days ago

And judging by the shadow of your arm and phone, the lights are low.

[–] ch00f 3 points 6 days ago

paging /u/purplecoco

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 days ago

I don't know what other people use it for, but that's where I plug my butt.