Who writes and checks the guides
Who writes and reviews each guide: writers and reviewers, and whether we say AI helps draft pages. We're not installers, so we don't write as if we were, and where a job needs a licence the page says so.
Before any page is published, it goes through automatic checks that refuse a number that isn't in our fact base, any price, and any wording that suggests we do the work ourselves.
Where our facts come from
Licence rules come from the bodies that issue the licences: the Australian Refrigeration Council for refrigerant handling, and each state's own regulators for plumbing, electrical and gas work. Consumer law comes from the legislation itself, privacy rules from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, and discount scheme rules from the bodies that run each scheme, such as Victoria's Essential Services Commission.
What a brand says about its own products, we attribute to the brand ('Daikin says'), never as a claim of our own. Some city climate figures come from published tables that cite the Bureau of Meteorology. Where that's the case we name the weather station, and the source list shows where the table came from.
What happens when sources disagree
Sometimes they do, and we'd rather show you than quietly pick one. Filter cleaning is a good example. Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric and Samsung all say about every two weeks, while Solar Victoria's 2021 buyers guide says about twice a year. We give you the manufacturers' advice and suggest you check your own manual.
Recommended thermostat settings differ between government sources too, so we name the one we're quoting. And where sources disagree about energy labels on ducted systems, we don't claim either way.
What we won't publish
Prices. Every home is different, so the only number worth having is a written quote from an installer who has seen yours.
A fact we couldn't confirm at its source. If a regulator's page was blocked or unclear, the fact stays out, even when it would have made a page more useful.
Rankings of brands or installers, the name of any installer in our network, or a review or job photo we can't show is real.
Who pays us, and why it stays out of the guides
Installers pay us for each job we pass on, as our referral disclosure explains. Our guides never name an installer in our network, so there's nothing in them for an installer to pay for. We're not any brand's dealer either.
When a job isn't worth doing, or you can safely do it yourself, the guide says so, even though it means nobody needs an installer.
Safety before anything else
No page tells you to regas a system, open refrigerant lines, rewire anything, open up a gas appliance or climb onto a roof. Where a guide touches gas, electrics, refrigerant or heights, the safety advice comes first.
Keeping pages current, and corrections
Rules change. Victoria's VEU co-payments, for example, changed on 30 September 2026. How often we review pages that depend on a rule: page review schedule.
Spotted something wrong or out of date? Tell us on our contact page and say which page. If we got it wrong, we'll correct it and change the date at the top.
What we'd do
Our suggestion
Before you rely on a rule for a big decision, such as a discount scheme, a rental obligation or your cooling-off rights, open the source at the foot of the page and make sure it's still current. It takes a minute, and rules involving money tend to change more often than the rest.