Placement of Outlets

[OldGuy43]

Many, many years ago I rented a house that had been part of a barn. It was a really neat little place, and apparently the part that was made into a house had been a stable or some such. The reason I say this is that the electrical outlets were about 10' apart and about 4' off the floor. Really convenient, no crawling around behind the furniture and there was always one near where you needed it.

Why do outlets need to be at such an inconvenient height?

 

[Nifty]

Wow, I've never seem them that high before!

I've always wondered why they are required to be a certain height... I just guessed it was for water / flooding? ... but I never thought about them being much higher. I guess it's to have them purposely hidden behind couches, furniture, etc?

 

[OldGuy43]

I've always thought that If I were going to build a house to my specs I'd just double up the outlets. One high and one low just beneath it. The high one would be for temp stuff like the vacuum cleaner.