Leaf & Watt

Editorial Policy

How Leaf & Watt researches, writes, fact-checks and corrects its solar and battery pages, the sources it uses, its safety rules and what it never claims.

Leaf & Watt pages are written to be accurate, useful and honest about where each number and rule comes from, and about what an estimate cannot know. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.

How a page is made

  1. Research. We start from primary sources, our rules register and our cost register, and note what they do and do not settle.
  2. Writing. A draft is written from that research under the Leaf & Watt name.
  3. Fact-check. A separate check compares each price, rate, credit rule, program amount, date and specification with its source, and reworks every sum and calculator example on the page.
  4. Graphics. Any charts or diagrams repeat figures from the text and add no new facts.
  5. Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps, outdated rules and unsafe advice. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.

Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.

Our sources

Every price, rate, credit rule, limit, program amount, date, specification and safety statement links to a primary source at the claim:

  • Tax credits: the statute (26 USC 25D, 48E and 45Y, as amended by Public Law 119-21) and IRS notices and FAQs.
  • Rates and export credits: utility tariffs and state utility commission orders.
  • Rebates and battery programs: the state agency’s or utility’s own program page.
  • State laws: the bill or statute text, with its effective date.
  • Products: makers’ current US datasheets, manuals and warranty documents.
  • Data: the Energy Information Administration, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Safety: fire services, UL, CPSC, CDC, OSHA and makers’ manuals. We quote codes and standards such as NFPA 855 only as we have read them, and say a limit is unconfirmed when we have not.

Installed prices are the exception, because most have no primary source. For those we show named published estimates, each dated and labelled with what it measures, next to our own build-up. Our how we estimate page explains the method. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is unconfirmed.

What we do not claim

  • We sell and install nothing. We never say “we tested” or “we installed”, and we do not claim to have owned or used the equipment we describe.
  • We do not invent authors, quotes, homeowner stories or installer comments.
  • We do not rank installers, panels or batteries. Products are compared on their own spec sheets, with no “best” and no winner.
  • We never call a price “fair”, a system “worth it” for you, a setup “safe” or “compliant”, or say “you qualify”. We give estimates; the utility, the state or a tax professional decides.
  • We never state a national rule where none exists. Rates and rules differ by state and utility, so we name the ones we have read.
  • Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They do not show systems we have installed or homes we have seen.

Safety

Leaf & Watt explains costs, rules and choices, not electrical work. We follow these rules:

  • No do-it-yourself electrical steps beyond what a maker’s manual says a homeowner may do. Panel, battery, inverter and transfer wiring goes to a licensed electrician, and interconnection goes through the utility.
  • We never suggest backfeeding a house, bypassing a meter, or skipping a permit, an inspection or an interconnection agreement.
  • Battery fire and placement guidance comes only from a fire service, UL, NFPA as read, or the maker’s installation manual.
  • Plug-in and balcony solar pages name only states whose law we have read, with the bill or statute and its effective date. We never say a plug-in system is legal or safe where the state or utility hasn’t said so.
  • Cleaning and roof pages follow the maker’s manual and OSHA’s fall guidance. Our default advice is to look from the ground and call a professional.
  • Generator pages give carbon monoxide warnings only in the words of CDC or CPSC.

Fairness

Installers’, makers’ and lease companies’ claims are reported as claims. Some published price figures come from quote marketplaces that earn from installers, and we name the source so you can weigh it. Where a lease or PPA provider may be able to claim a business tax credit, we say so separately and point out that whether any of it reaches you depends on the contract. Sometimes the honest answer is that solar or a battery doesn’t pay back on your numbers, or that a smaller system or waiting is worth considering.

Calculators

Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. Every default that is a price, rate, production figure, hour count or rule value says where it comes from and when, or that it is our assumption, and you can change it. Calculators print numbers only, so read the notes on the page around them.

Updates and corrections

Rules, rates and programs change, so we recheck them on a schedule, as our how we estimate page sets out, and sooner when a source changes. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.

Advertising and independence

Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads and make no installer referrals or quote requests. Our about page has more on how the site works.