of use
Rev. 16 Sep 2026
Terms of use
Last updated 16 September 2026
The short version. This is a free, open-source tool that does arithmetic on your own meter readings. It is not financial, legal or engineering advice, it comes with no warranty, and decisions about your electricity plan, solar or battery remain yours.
These terms were written by the project's author, who is not a lawyer. They are deliberately short, they contain no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver, and they do not ask you to give up anything the law says you keep.
What this is
Home Energy Advisor is an independent project that reads the interval usage file your California utility already keeps for you and shows you the shape of your own electricity use. The wider project also contains a bill engine that models published utility tariffs.
It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of PG&E, SDG&E, any Community Choice Aggregator, the CPUC, or any solar or battery installer. Utility and company names appear only to identify whose published tariffs are being described.
Who these terms are between
They are between you and Cameron Gordon (“the author”), who writes and runs this project personally, from California, for no charge. Using the site means accepting them; if you would rather not, please do not use it. There is no account to close and no subscription to cancel — closing the tab ends it.
Not advice
Nothing here is financial, legal, tax or engineering advice, and using the tool creates no professional relationship of any kind. Choosing a rate schedule, buying solar or storage, or switching generation supplier are consequential decisions that depend on facts this tool does not know about you. Verify anything that matters against your own bills and your utility before acting on it.
Accuracy, and its limits
The project holds itself to a published accuracy standard and states plainly where that standard has and has not been met — see the methodology. That is a genuine commitment, and it is still not a guarantee. In particular:
- Tariffs change. Rates in the engine are transcribed from public regulatory filings that were current when they were read. California rates change mid-year, and a figure can go stale without notice.
- Your file may be incomplete. Utility exports contain gaps, estimated readings and clock-change artefacts. The tool reports what it finds, but it can only work with what your utility gave you.
- Analysis is not a bill. Only your utility can tell you what you owe. Where the engine has not reproduced real bills for a utility, this tool deliberately shows you no dollar figure at all rather than a confident-looking guess.
- Errors are possible. The source is public specifically so that mistakes can be found and reported. If you find one, please open an issue.
& liability
No warranty, and limits on liability
The tool is provided as is and as available, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. You use it at your own risk.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the author is not liable for any loss or damage arising out of your use of, or inability to use, this site — including any decision you make about a rate plan, supplier, solar array or battery. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
The site is a personal project offered free of charge. It may change, break, or be taken down at any time, and no particular availability is promised.
Your data and your file
Your usage file is read in your own browser and is never uploaded. You keep every right in your own data; the project asks for none. See the privacy page for exactly what the page does and does not request.
Please only upload data you are entitled to use. It is your own utility data, so ordinarily you are.
use
Using it reasonably
A static page that prices nothing leaves little to misuse, so this is short. Please do not present its output as your utility's official figure, or as professional advice given to someone else; do not use it to break the law or anyone else's rights; and do not try to deface or overload the site or its repository. Redistributing the software is governed by the licence below, not by this paragraph.
Services this page depends on
Loading the page fetches it from GitHub Pages, and analysing a file fetches the analysis engine from the jsDelivr CDN. Those are independent companies operating under their own terms and privacy policies. The author does not control them, cannot speak for them, and is not responsible for what they do — the privacy page sets out exactly what each one sees, which is your IP address and nothing from your file.
Licence and reuse
The software is published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. You may read, run, modify and redistribute it under those terms, including the requirement to publish source for a modified version you run as a network service. The full licence and the source are at github.com/CameronGordonn/energy-advisor.
The utility tariff sheets, avoided-cost tables and other regulatory filings the project cites are public documents and are not covered by that licence.
Changes to these terms
These terms may be updated. Because the site is version-controlled in public, every change is visible in the commit history rather than only in the date at the top of this page.
Who can use it
The tool is for utility bill-payers and is not directed at children. If you are under 13, please do not use it.
Governing law, and where a dispute would go
These terms, and any dispute arising out of the site or its use, are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be settled by opening an issue and talking about it goes to the state or federal courts sitting in California, and you and the author each agree to that venue.
Nothing in this section takes away a mandatory consumer-protection right you hold under the law of the place you actually live, or asks you to waive a right that cannot lawfully be waived. If your local law says its courts hear your case, this section does not argue with it.
If part of these terms does not hold
If a court finds any part of them unenforceable, that part is read as narrowly as it needs to be to become enforceable, or struck out if it cannot be — and the rest of the terms carry on unaffected.
If the author does not enforce something straight away, that is not a waiver of it. These terms, the privacy page and the licence are the whole of the agreement about your use of this site, and they replace any earlier version of it; the public commit history is the record of what changed and when.