Editorial Policy

This page explains exactly how content on The Heating Guide gets written, labeled, sourced, and updated — so you can decide how much weight to put on any given claim.

Sourcing

Factual claims are drawn from manufacturer specification sheets, Canadian government sources (Natural Resources Canada, provincial energy regulators, utility rate and rebate program pages), and other publicly citable data. Every guide has a Sources section at the bottom listing exactly where its data came from.

The Researched / Hands-on system

Every guide is labeled Researched orHands-on, visibly, near the title:

  • Researched — built from cited sources and manufacturer data, not from a hands-on install or field test by us.
  • Hands-on — based on equipment we've personally installed, lived with, or tested.

All guides in this site's first version are Researched, stated plainly. We treat this distinction as load-bearing, not decorative — it's why you won't find Review or AggregateRating structured data anywhere on this site: that schema signals a hands-on review happened, and for v1 content, it didn't.

The [VERIFY] marker

Where a page includes a number, rate, spec, or program detail that needs to be checked against a current primary source before publication — because rates change, programs get restructured, or a model-year spec needs confirming — it's marked[VERIFY] directly in the text. Nothing marked this way should be treated as confirmed until the marker is removed after a verification pass.

What we don't do

  • No sponsored rankings or pay-for-placement content.
  • No affiliate links in this version of the site.
  • No Review or AggregateRating schema on content we haven't hands-on tested.
  • No DIY repair, gas work, or electrical instructions — buying guidance only.
  • No blocking of AI crawlers or search engines — every guide is written to be extractable and citable, and we allow the crawlers that make that possible.

Updates

Every guide shows a published date and a last-updated date. When a rate, rebate program, or spec changes materially, the guide is updated in place and the updated date moves — we don't silently edit without changing that date.

Corrections

If you find an error, we want to know.[VERIFY: add a real contact method]