Editorial and review policy
This site publishes numbers that affect what people spend. This is how those numbers are produced, checked and corrected.
Sourcing
- Electricity prices come from a named primary source with its table, period and retrieval date shown on the page — currently the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B.
- Appliance power figures come from U.S. Department of Energy and ENERGY STAR guidance and published manufacturer specifications, and are presented as a typical figure with its usual range.
- Where a value is an estimate rather than a sourced measurement, the page says so in plain words instead of implying a precision we do not have.
Calculation
Every published figure — in the calculator, the prose, the FAQ answers, the structured data and the page description — is generated from one calculation engine and one set of inputs per appliance. A build-time check compares them and fails the build on any disagreement, so a page cannot show two different answers to the same question.
Each appliance is assigned the usage model that matches how it is actually used, rather than a single formula applied to everything. The models and their limits are set out in the methodology.
Claims about savings
- A savings figure always names the changed input, the baseline and the resulting difference, so it can be checked rather than believed.
- We do not claim a product swap saves energy where physics says otherwise. An electric resistance heater costs the same per watt whatever brand it is; an EV charger does not create the energy a car needs. Those pages say so, even though the opposite is easier to monetize.
- We say "in this scenario", not "you will save", unless measured evidence supports the stronger claim.
Review cadence
Calculator pages carry a visible review date and a scheduled next review. That date moves only when someone has actually re-checked the sources and the model — never automatically on a deploy. The electricity-price table has its own staleness gate — npm run rates:check, run before a deploy — which fails once the underlying data passes 90 days without a refresh, or while any row is still awaiting one.
Commercial relationships
Advertising and affiliate links never influence a calculated figure, a recommendation or a ranking. Product links are chosen for relevance and energy-use value; where a link earns us nothing, the page says that too. See the affiliate disclosure.
Errors
We would rather be corrected than be wrong quietly. The corrections policy explains what happens when you report one.