Receptacle having an internal switch with an emitter and a receiver

A power receptacle comprising:

• a housing mountable within an opening of a wall and a cover plate therefore and securable thereto;
• an associated pair of receptacle contacts mounted within said housing, said contacts each having a pair of arms coextending towards a plug receiving region of a cover plate and concluding in blade receiving entrances aligned with blade-receiving apertures of said cover plate;
• said arms of said receptacle contact sections having openings therethrough, said openings being generally transversely coaligned to define a beam receiving passage completely through said receptacle contact sections in a selected direction;
• means for directing a beam of light through said beam receiving passage and including at least a light emitting component;
• and
• means for detecting a beam of light passing through said beam receiving passage at least including a light receiving component;
• at least one of said light receiving and said light emitting components being electrically connected ultimately to a microprocessor;
• whereby entry into said receptacle contact sections by complmentary blades of a plug of an electrically powered devices, blocks said beam receiving passage thereby breaking transmission of light between said emitter and receiver, which is ultimately detected by said microprocessor.