Editorial policy

This page explains how we make our guides.

How we choose topics

We look for questions about home energy that many people search for. We pick the ones we can answer well from public sources, and where numbers help: costs, sizes, ratings and run times. We do not cover do-it-yourself wiring, gas or refrigerant work, tax credits and rebates, or brand rankings.

Our sources

We prefer U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of Energy, ENERGY STAR, the Energy Information Administration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Then come national laboratories, universities, standards bodies and established reference sites. For products, we use makers’ manuals and specifications. We do not use installers’ or sellers’ pages for prices. Sentences that draw on a source carry a numbered link to it.

How a guide is made

  1. Research. We collect facts from our sources. For each one we record the source and a short quote. We load every source page and confirm the quote is really there.
  2. Draft. We write the guide, mainly from those facts.
  3. Automatic checks. Software checks the guide’s structure and reading level, and rejects banned phrases. It also checks every energy figure, rating, price, saving and safety distance against its source. Where a guide works out an example, the software redoes the arithmetic.
  4. Approve. Our editor, George McTaggart, reads the guide and decides whether to publish it.

We use AI tools in steps 1 and 2. Read how we use AI.

We do not fact-check every sentence by hand, and no electrician or engineer reviews our guides. They give general information, not advice for your own home. Read our disclaimer.

What we never do

  • We never invent quotes, people, experiences or studies.
  • We never promise savings. We show the arithmetic, and your rate and use decide the result.
  • We never give a price or a rate without its source and year.

Dates and updates

Each guide shows when it was published or last updated. Energy prices change, so we update guides when their figures go out of date.

Corrections

If you find an error, tell us. We fix confirmed errors quickly.

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