Editorial Methodology

Last updated: October 20, 2026

TechFuel HQ publishes hardware guides for homelabbers and budget-PC builders. This page describes — in plain language — who produces the content, how it is produced, what is and is not verified first-hand, and how readers can challenge any claim. The intent is to make every article auditable. See the full colophon for the publishing stack and bench methodology.

Who produces the content

The site is owned and edited by Lowell K. Wood IV (byline LK Wood IV), based in St. Louis County, Missouri. Lowell is the publisher of record. Author identity and contact information are exposed in the JSON-LD schema on every article and in the About page.

Email: contact@techfuelhq.com

There is no other staff. The site is a single-operator publication.

Real-artifact policy

A small number of claims on the site rely on first-person evidence rather than vendor specs — for example, a Kill A Watt idle-wattage reading, an iperf3 throughput run between two specific NICs, a photo of a parts receipt, or a screenshot of a BIOS configuration. The site has a strict policy for these:

  • Default tense is past. Most of the 2024–2025 testing gear was sold or retired in early 2026 (full timeline on the Colophon). First-person measurement language in older articles refers to that period and is phrased in the past tense.
  • First-person results stand as published. What I ran, measured or tested, on my current gear or on systems I used before, is reported as mine with or without a saved file on the site. Where a dataset exists, the article links it, for example the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC bench dataset, captured 2026-06-08–2026-06-09.
  • Third-party figures carry their source. A figure I did not measure is attributed to the named publication or document it came from (ServeTheHome, Phoronix, Tom’s Hardware, TechPowerUp, the maker’s spec sheet).
  • Fabricating an artifact — staged screenshots, made-up wattage numbers, invented dmesg or journalctl output, fake receipts — is forbidden under site policy.

If an article’s evidence shifts from “vendor spec citation” to “first-person measurement” or vice versa, the article’s update log records the date and direction of the shift.

Source standards

Every factual claim that is not first-person traces to one of these:

  • Vendor documentation — release notes, specification sheets, official pricing pages, official product matrices.
  • Vendor announcements — release blogs, press notes, official forums.
  • Reputable third-party publications — ServeTheHome, Tom’s Hardware, AnandTech archive, Phoronix, LWN, vendor-independent benchmark labs. Forum posts and community wikis are used only for facts that have a clear authoritative provenance (release notes, license docs, official FAQs).
  • Standards bodies — JEDEC, PCI-SIG, IEEE, RFC documents, where relevant.

Sources are linked inline at the point of claim and aggregated in the Sources block within each article.

A claim that cannot be cited to a resolvable, real source is removed before publish. I do not publish uncited rumor.

Review scope

A review can combine these sources. Identify the basis for each judgment:

  • Personal use: the author’s stated experience with the product, including the relevant use and period where provided.
  • TechFuelHQ measurements: results measured by TechFuelHQ, with the setup and conditions described. Published first-party work remains first-party whether or not a raw file is available on the site.
  • Research from external tests: findings attributed to the publication that performed the test, with its hardware and conditions kept distinct from TechFuelHQ’s own work.
  • Manufacturer specifications: published capabilities and limits. These describe the product; they do not establish measured performance in our workload.

The word “review” does not by itself mean that TechFuelHQ physically tested the product. A hands-on claim must describe actual personal use or testing. Recommendations built from external research should say so and link the evidence supporting the decision.

Monetization disclosure

Some retailer links may earn a commission on a qualifying purchase at no extra cost to the reader. Others are plain reference links that earn nothing. A retailer source may also be affiliate-tagged when it documents a dated price, seller, stock state, or listing text. Its financial connection must be disclosed, and it receives sponsored-link treatment. A retailer listing supports those listing facts; specifications and performance claims need manufacturer documentation or the original test source. The disclosure page owns the full policy. Display advertising is served through Google AdSense.

Some Amazon links use the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Pages carrying commissionable links must explain that connection before the first such link, including a source citation. A commission never changes which product gets recommended. Full detail is on the disclosure page.

Google approved the site for AdSense on September 30, 2026, and the account tag and ad loader returned to the site’s pages the same day, after their removal on August 17, 2026. The site uses publisher-placed ad units as well as Google-managed Auto ads.

Editorial recommendations remain independent of advertiser identity. Relevant sponsored articles and paid mentions are permitted under the sponsorship and disclosure rules: the placement is labeled on its page, TechFuel HQ retains editorial control, and promotional links use rel="sponsored" (with nofollow when appropriate). The privacy policy covers advertising cookies and consent.

Update cadence

Articles are revised when the underlying facts change: a product release, price shift, license change, or firmware or kernel change that affects compatibility. “Last updated” identifies a material revision. Cosmetic edits do not bump that date.

The publication date identifies first publication. “Sources checked” or “Last verified” identifies the stated source check; individual price and source records keep their own dates. A later page update does not establish that every source was checked again. If an older date needs correction, the correction should use publication history and explain the change. Dates must not be reassigned to make a group of articles appear to have been published gradually.

Corrections

Readers who spot an error are encouraged to email contact@techfuelhq.com with the article URL and the specific section in question. Confirmed corrections are:

  1. Made in-place in the affected article.
  2. Logged in the article’s update log with the date and a one-line summary.
  3. Acknowledged by reply email.

Material errors discovered after the fact are not silently overwritten. The site’s intent is to be auditable.

What this site does not do

To set explicit expectations:

  • The site does not publish vendor-paid placements disguised as independent editorial, sell followed links or guarantee a positive verdict.
  • The site does not describe external testing or manufacturer specifications as TechFuelHQ’s hands-on results. The review’s evidence basis is described under Review scope.
  • The site does not chase hype cycles. If a product is unproven, the article says so.

Contact

Publisher: Lowell K. Wood IV Email: contact@techfuelhq.com Location: St. Louis County, Missouri, United States

Site policies referenced from this page: About, Disclosure, Privacy, Terms, Contact.