How We Use AI

Where AI helps

• Code. AI helps write and test the code behind our calculators. The math itself is plain, published formulas: see How we calculate.
• Gathering specs. AI helped collect the specifications from manufacturers' pages and manuals in September 2026. Every model page links to its sources, so you can check any number yourself. We're checking the specs by hand against those sources, starting with the most popular models.
• First drafts. Much of the explanatory text (guides, appliance tips and page intros) started as AI drafts. In October 2026 the appliance pages and guides were rebuilt with AI assistance around primary sources: manufacturer manuals and spec sheets, government data and safety agencies, each listed at the bottom of the page. A separate AI fact-check compared the figures with those sources. A person still needs to add first-hand observations, page by page.

What people do

• Decide what each page covers and what it adds that isn't already out there.
• Check specs against their sources (in progress, starting with the most popular models).
• Run measured tests. None are published yet; when they are, they'll be labeled Measured runtimes, and estimates will stay labeled as estimates.
• Rewrite the AI-drafted text in our own words (in progress).

What we never do

• Present calculated estimates as tests, or invent testers, reviews or credentials.
• Let a chatbot produce the numbers. AI gathered the input specs and helped write the code, but every runtime and load check is calculated by that code from published specs, which we're checking by hand.

Spot something wrong? Email hello@outagemath.com and we'll fix it.