You probably have a ground fault detector plug in your bathroom. It’s an ordinary plug but with a little button in the centre. It prevents you from electrocuting yourself when you drop your electric eyebrow pencil into the water-filled sink.
Strolling along Preston, trying to escape the ever-present thumps of Noisefest, I spotted this unique electrical installation. Judging by the position of the wires, the device must diffuse electricity into the air, to prevent one from being electrocuted when touching the steel tree guard. Pretty clever.
Personally though, I prefer my plugs installed the other way around, so the two slots form eyes and the roundish-one the mouth. I probably took too many children’s stories literally.
Oddly enough, that orientation may well be less susceptible to plugs falling out.
Of course North American electrical outlets and plugs are a pretty bad design compared to the designs used in most other countries. That and everyone else runs on 240V anyway.
I’ve found that many plugs in Ottawa (including all those in my first apartment here) are installed like that.. I’d never seen it before in Alberta… must be a faction in the local electricians…. though no electrician I’ve ever met would have committed the atrocity pictured here.
I think it’s the latest green energy innovation. It’s a lightning catcher.