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Home Energy Checkup

Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information the Home Energy Checkup uses, why it is used, where it is stored, and how you can delete it.

Last updated: November 6, 2026

1. What this policy covers

This Privacy Policy applies to energyaudits.net and the Home Energy Checkup, the service name used for this campaign, including its report and optional private resume links.

2. Information used by the checkup

The checkup uses information you choose to enter, which may include:

  • Your ZIP code and general home details, such as home type, approximate size, year built, whether you own or rent, and what repairs or changes you can control.
  • Your energy sources, heating and cooling equipment, utility bill totals, billing dates, and optional usage amounts.
  • Your observations about drafts, comfort, insulation, windows, appliances, duct locations, filter care, and other energy use.
  • Optional details about when people are usually home, household size, and thermostat type.
  • Optional seasonal use and typical daily run time for plug-in space heaters and window or portable air conditioners.
  • Your preferences for budget, DIY work, future projects, and how long you expect to stay in the home.
  • If you unlock the premium experience, the saved action plan and a record of each plan run. While the checkup exists, a run record is linked to its checkup and premium profile. It also records timestamps, provider/model, token counts, a provider request ID, and processing status or error code.
  • Feedback you submit, including its category, message, and the page you were viewing. Feedback does not include your checkup answers.
  • Optional Energy Buddy response ratings and short feedback comments. The question and response exchange are saved only if you select the unchecked-by-default transcript-sharing box after a thumbs-down.
  • If you contact support, your email address, selected topic, and message so we can respond.

The checkup does not ask for your street address or your utility account credentials. Please do not enter sensitive information that is not needed to answer a question.

3. How information is used

Your answers are used to show the checkup report, compare bill totals across seasons, estimate energy costs where the available information supports it, and organize practical recommendations around the details you provided. If you unlock the premium experience, your saved answers and preferences are used to prepare and update a personalized action plan tied to your saved checkup and verified premium profile.

If you use the project payback estimator, your ZIP code is sent to a postal-code lookup service to obtain an approximate location, then checked against the U.S. Department of Energy’s public climate-zone map. This gives the estimator a climate-zone benchmark; it does not request or transmit your street address.

The plan uses the checkup’s rules by default. If optional AI assistance is enabled, a limited set of checkup details—such as your selected concern, home and system categories, preferences, bill-history coverage, and recommendation titles—may be sent to OpenAI to write a short plan overview. We do not send your email, phone number, ZIP code, street address, resume token, or free-text support messages for this task. API data are not used to train OpenAI models by default; see OpenAI API data controls. We store the plan-run provider, model, status, timestamps, input/output/total token counts, and provider request ID when returned for usage tracking, troubleshooting, and cost control. Rules-only runs record zero tokens.

When you use Energy Buddy: Your question and only the relevant home-profile details are sent to OpenAI to classify the request and prepare an answer. ZIP code, contact details, checkup ID, and resume token are not included. Guided answers that describe your home are saved to the existing checkup profile; scenario-only inputs are processed for that question and are not saved to your home profile. We set the OpenAI Responses API store option to false, but OpenAI may retain API inputs and outputs in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days under its standard API data controls. OpenAI states that API data are not used to train models by default; see OpenAI API data controls. Energy Buddy requests have separate limits of five new questions and ten AI calls per saved checkup each day, plus an IP-based abuse limit. We record provider, model, status, timestamps, token counts, prompt version, provider request ID, a broad request category, and whether Energy Buddy answered directly, started a guided flow, refused an off-topic request, or failed. If you rate a response, we store the thumbs-up/down rating and any short comment; comments are checked for common email addresses, phone numbers, links, and ZIP codes. Please do not include personal details. After a thumbs-down, you can optionally check a box to let us save the exchange for troubleshooting: your original question, follow-up details you entered, Energy Buddy's follow-up and final responses, and any displayed estimate details. The box is unchecked by default; if left unchecked, we do not save that exchange. An opted-in exchange is stored with the saved checkup and deleted when you delete that checkup. Usage and feedback metrics remain for analysis after deletion, with checkup/profile IDs removed and without the transcript.

Feedback is used to identify issues and improve the checkup. The feedback form does not collect your name or contact details.

Support messages are used to respond to your request and troubleshoot the issue you describe. They are sent through Resend to our support inbox, and your email address is used only to reply to you. Do not include passwords, utility account numbers, or other sensitive information.

We do not sell checkup answers or use them to build advertising profiles. Information may also be processed to keep the site working, troubleshoot errors, and protect the service from misuse.

4. Where information is stored

On your device: As you work, your answers and progress are saved in local browser storage so you can return to the checkup on that browser. This local copy is not automatically shared between devices or browsers.

When you save a private resume link: The answers in that checkup are saved in the application database so the link can reopen them. The link contains a private access key. Anyone with the complete link can view, change, or delete the saved checkup, so keep it private. The database stores a verification hash for the key rather than the key itself.

When you ask us to email or text a resume link: We collect the email address or mobile number you enter to send a one-time verification code and, after you verify it, the requested private resume link. We store an encrypted contact value and a one-way hash with the saved checkup so we can recognize the verified contact without exposing it in ordinary database reads. Your contact is not used for marketing or sold to energy providers. Email and text delivery providers process the destination and message to deliver what you requested.

We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

For Home Energy Checkup text messages, you must check the consent box before requesting a code. Consent covers only the requested verification code and resume link; it is not a condition of using the checkup and does not enroll you in marketing. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out. We do not sell or share SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

When you submit feedback: Its category, message, and the page path are stored in the application database. Your checkup answers are not attached to feedback.

When you use the premium experience: Your action plan and premium profile are stored with the saved checkup. If you permanently delete that checkup, its contact details, premium profile, action plan, opted-in Energy Buddy diagnostic exchanges, and linked plan content are deleted. We retain premium plan and Energy Buddy usage metrics for AI cost tracking, but remove the checkup and profile IDs from those records. Retained usage metrics do not include checkup answers, generated plans, or Energy Buddy transcripts.

When you use a project payback estimator: For the air-sealing and insulation estimate, the ZIP code already in your checkup is sent to Zippopotam.us for ZIP-centroid coordinates and those coordinates are queried against the DOE ArcGIS climate-zone service. The water-heater estimate uses details already in your checkup, any optional tank-size, electricity-rate, or contractor-quote inputs you provide, and a bundled copy of public NREM cost data; it does not send those answers to an outside service. Neither estimator sends your name, contact information, checkup ID, or full address to its lookup sources. Any estimator inputs are stored only as part of your checkup and are removed when you delete it. Payback calculations do not call OpenAI.

When you contact support: Your message and reply address are processed by Resend to deliver it to our support inbox. Support messages are not stored in the checkup database and are not attached to your checkup answers.

Hosting and database providers may process information as needed to operate the website. We do not use advertising trackers or analytics tools in the checkup.

5. How to delete your information

  • Delete this Checkup: Choose this action from the checkup screen. If the checkup is saved on our server, it removes the database record, invalidates its private link, deletes any verified contact details, premium profile/action plan, and opted-in Energy Buddy diagnostic exchanges, and clears the browser copy. If it is local only, it clears the browser copy. Every premium plan-run record remains for platform analysis, including runs with zero token use; checkup/profile IDs are removed from those records. They do not contain your answers, generated plan, or opted-in diagnostic transcript. This cannot be undone. If server deletion fails, your answers remain available so you can try again.
  • Clear a local checkup outside the app: You can also clear site data for energyaudits.net in your browser settings.
  • Delete feedback you just submitted: While its confirmation is open, choose Remove this feedback. Feedback is otherwise kept until it is deleted by the site operator.
  • Delete a support message: Reply to the support email or send a follow-up through the Help page asking us to remove the message.

Deleting a checkup does not remove separate feedback submissions or support emails, because they are not attached to checkup records. Usage-only AI metrics remain without the IDs or report content that linked them to the deleted checkup. Short-lived, hashed rate-limit and abuse-prevention counters are kept separately for up to 48 hours, then removed automatically. Saved database records do not currently expire automatically; they remain until deleted through the checkup.

Deleting a checkup cannot recall an email or text message already delivered. Resend, Twilio, and other delivery providers may retain transactional delivery records under their own policies.

6. Security and access

Private resume links use a randomly generated access key, and the database stores a hash of that key. A private link works like a password: anyone who receives it can access the saved checkup. Do not post or share it publicly.

A verification code confirms access to the email address or phone number at the time of the request. It does not create an account, establish legal identity or home ownership, or opt you into marketing. Verification codes expire after 10 minutes and are limited to three incorrect attempts.

7. Children’s privacy

The checkup is intended for adults who are assessing a home. It is not designed for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information directly from children under 13.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the service or its data practices change. The “Last updated” date above shows when the current version took effect. Please review this page again if you continue using the checkup after a change.

For the rules that apply when using the checkup, read the Terms & Conditions.