What this site is for, who runs it, how we make money, and why we’ll tell you when something isn’t worth buying.
What HomeEnergyPlanner does
HomeEnergyPlanner publishes practical guides for homeowners who want to lower their utility bills and run cleaner equipment without getting sold a bad system. Solar, batteries, heat pumps, efficiency upgrades, incentives. We cover the decisions a homeowner actually has to make, with the dollar amounts and the trade-offs.
The site is part of a small set of tools and content built by Dan Golden:
- HomeEnergyPlanner.com. Guides, calculators, buying advice. You’re here.
- HomeDoc. A home management app that tracks your appliances, maintenance, energy bills, and risk profile.
- BidSmart. A tool that compares contractor proposals so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.
The three work together. You can use any one without the others. If a guide here mentions a calculator from HomeDoc, that’s why.
Who writes it
Dan Golden has been working on residential energy efficiency for over 20 years, since 2004. He founded HomeEnergyPlanner, HomeDoc, and BidSmart. He writes most of the guides on this site and edits anything he doesn’t.
The author voice is plain on purpose. We won’t try to convince you that an upgrade is right when it isn’t. If a product is overpriced for the savings it delivers, we say so. If a tax credit doesn’t apply to most readers, we lead with that.
How we make money (the FTC disclosure section)
HomeEnergyPlanner has affiliate links in some posts. When you click an affiliate link and buy a product on Amazon or directly from a manufacturer, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Some product reviews are on units we purchased ourselves; some are on units provided by a manufacturer for review. Where the manufacturer provided the unit, we say so in that post.
We don’t accept payment in exchange for positive reviews, and we publish negative reviews of products we tested. The editorial process is independent of the affiliate revenue.
Some posts link to HomeDoc or BidSmart, which are sister products. Those are not affiliate links. We own those tools. We point you to them when they’re the right answer to the question the post is about.
What we won’t do
A few things we won’t do that other home energy sites do:
- We won’t write a “best of” list of products we haven’t tested or independently verified
- We won’t quote a price range without sourcing it to the manufacturer or a recent install database
- We won’t tell you a tax credit is available when it isn’t (we update policy posts every 90 days; check the “Last verified” date)
- We won’t sell your email address. Newsletter sign-ups are used only for the newsletter we run
Editorial process
Each post on this site goes through a brief, a draft, and a voice review before publishing. The brief records what question the post is supposed to answer and which primary sources it cites. The voice review is automated and catches the marketing language we don’t want in our writing.
If you read something here that’s wrong (a fact, a dollar amount, a policy citation), please send a correction to editor@homeenergyplanner.com. We re-verify policy posts on a 90-day cadence but errors slip through.
Contributing
If you have expertise in residential energy, electrification, solar, or incentive policy and you’d like to publish here, see the Expert Advisor Program. The program runs as a curated contributor pipeline. We don’t accept unsolicited submissions but we do review applications.
Start with one of these
If this is your first visit, the most useful pages on the site:
- What’s Left of the Inflation Reduction Act for Homeowners in 2026 — the federal money story after the OBBB
- Buying Guides — the equipment recommendations hub
- Solar Savings Calculator — model your specific roof and bill
- Home Backup Batteries Guide — what to buy in 2026
- Why Insulation Beats Solar in ROI — the underrated upgrade
Contact
For general questions, story ideas, or partnership inquiries, see the contact page.
