Privacy & cookie notice
The short version. WattDollar has no accounts and no database of what you type. The calculator's arithmetic happens in your browser, and your rate and appliance list are saved in your browser so the page remembers them. Two companies are involved. Cloudflare processes data on our behalf to serve, cache and protect the site. Google does not: for advertising it acts as an independent controller and decides its own purposes for what it collects here, which is why the Google controls linked below are more effective than anything we can do for you. If you use "Copy share link", the values you entered travel in that link.
No accounts, and nothing we collect from you directly
There are no sign-ups, no newsletters, no contact forms and no lead capture anywhere on this site. We set no cookies of our own and we run no analytics of our own. We never request your precise location — the browser geolocation permission prompt is not used here; you choose a region from a list if you want one.
What the calculator does with what you type
The calculation runs in JavaScript in your browser. The wattages, hours, cycles, miles and prices you enter are not transmitted to us and we operate no server that could store them. The one exception is described under "Share links" below.
Browser storage
WattDollar stores one item in your browser's local storage, named plugload. It holds your selected electricity-price region and price, whether you typed a custom price, the usage model and inputs currently on screen, and the appliance list you have built in whole-home mode. That is so the page remembers your settings on your next visit.
Nothing in it identifies you, and it stays on your device — we cannot read it. To remove it, clear this site's data in your browser (in most browsers: site settings for watt-dollar.com, then "delete data"). Doing so resets the calculator to its defaults and nothing else.
Share links
If you use Copy share link, WattDollar builds a link containing the scenario on screen: the region, the electricity price, the appliance, its usage model and its inputs, and — in whole-home mode — every appliance in your list. That is the point of the feature: the person you send it to opens the same estimate.
It also means those values are in a web address. When that address is opened, it is sent to our host in the ordinary way any page address is, and it is available to Google's ad server as the address of the page an ad is being requested for. Anyone who receives or forwards the link can see the scenario in it. Do not put anything you consider sensitive into a share link.
Ordinary use of the calculator never changes the address bar, so this only applies to links you deliberately create, and to links you open.
Advertising
The site is funded by Google AdSense, which runs on the homepage, the 54 appliance cost pages and the conversion guide. It does not run on this page, on the other policy and trust pages, or on the appliance index and category hubs.
Google and its advertising partners may set or read cookies or similar identifiers, and may process information such as your IP address, browser and device details, the address of the page you are on, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and your interactions with ads. WattDollar does not receive Google's raw advertising identifiers; we may receive aggregate reports about ad performance.
You can review and turn off personalised advertising at Google My Ad Center, and read how Google uses data from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Google requires publishers to obtain consent through a certified consent management platform before serving personalised ads, and to give you a way to change your mind. If you were not shown a consent prompt on this site, do two things: use Google My Ad Center to turn off ad personalisation, which takes effect regardless of what this site does; and tell us at ownership@watt-dollar.com, because we would rather hear it from you than not know.
Links that may earn us money
Some outbound product links may pay us a commission on a resulting purchase. Each such link is labelled where you meet it, and a link that earns us nothing says so. Following one takes you to a third party whose own privacy policy then applies. Commission never changes a figure the calculator produces. See the affiliate disclosure.
Hosting, logs and security
The site is served by Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes IP addresses and request metadata to deliver the site, cache it and protect it from abuse, under its own privacy policy.
We also have request logging switched on for the site (Cloudflare Workers Logs). It records the address requested — including anything carried in a share link — along with the usual request metadata such as IP address, and it is retained for a short period. We use it to find errors and see traffic volume. We do not use it to build a profile of anyone, and we do not combine it with anything else.
Analytics
WattDollar runs no analytics product of its own, and this site loads no analytics script. Cloudflare's own delivery-side measurement of traffic and performance may operate at the network edge as part of hosting; that is Cloudflare's processing described above.
Who is responsible, and on what basis
WattDollar is published and operated by its publisher, who is the controller for the limited processing described above. Contact: ownership@watt-dollar.com. Google is a separate, independent controller for advertising, and Cloudflare is our processor for hosting.
| What | Why | Basis (EEA/UK) | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calculator settings in your browser | So the page remembers your rate and appliance list | Not our processing — it never leaves your device and we cannot read it | Until you clear this site's data |
| Request logs (IP, URL, request metadata) | Finding errors, seeing traffic volume, blocking abuse | Legitimate interests in keeping the site working and secure | A short retention window set by Cloudflare Workers Logs — days, not months. We do not export or archive it. |
| Advertising identifiers and ad interactions | Serving and measuring ads | Google's, as an independent controller. Where consent is required for personalised ads, that is the basis Google relies on. | Set by Google — see its policies |
Both Google and Cloudflare are US-headquartered and operate global networks, so data may be processed outside the EEA and UK under the transfer safeguards described in their own policies. We hold no separate copy to transfer.
Your rights
We hold no account and no record you created — there is nothing here to log into and nothing to export. Server logs do contain IP addresses for a short period, and in the EEA and UK an IP address counts as personal data. If you want to make a request about that, email ownership@watt-dollar.com with enough detail to identify the requests concerned (approximate time and page), and we will do what we reasonably can within the retention window.
For anything Google holds about your advertising profile, the Google controls linked above are the direct route, and — because Google is an independent controller here — they are more effective than anything we can do on your behalf.
If you are in the EEA or UK and think we have got any of this wrong, you also have the right to complain to your national data protection supervisory authority.
Your California privacy choices
WattDollar does not sell personal information for money, and holds no personal information to sell. Under the CPRA, however, serving personalised advertising can count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising, and that is what the AdSense units on the calculator pages do.
Your practical controls: turn off ad personalisation in Google My Ad Center, which applies wherever you are; and send a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser or extension, which Google treats as an opt-out for the sites it serves ads on. Or ask us at ownership@watt-dollar.com and we will tell you exactly what we hold, which for a site with no accounts is a short answer.
Children
This site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect anything from them.
Changes and contact
If this notice changes, the review date at the top changes with it. Questions: ownership@watt-dollar.com. Security reports: security@watt-dollar.com.