Terms, privacy & accessibility

This manual is offered free, as general education. In plain language: use it at your own risk, we collect nothing about you, and we try to make it usable by everyone. The details follow. Last updated October 14, 2026.

1. Terms of use and disclaimer

By using this site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it.

Educational content only

Everything here is general information, written for hobbyists and self-taught beginners. It is not professional, medical, legal, financial, engineering or safety advice, and it is not a substitute for the judgment of a qualified professional for your specific situation. Materials, sites, climates and people vary; results will differ from what is described.

Personalized content

The "Your rooms" boxes, the calculators and the seeded binder rows are generated automatically from what you type into the setup form, using published targets and stated assumptions. They are planning estimates, not measurements or guarantees. Check every number against your own readings and the product's label and specification sheet.

Safety

• Planning and testing, not wiring. This manual teaches planning and testing, not wiring. Installing or replacing fixtures, switches, dimmers, outlets and smart switches is work for a licensed electrician, and in many places it needs a permit. Ask your building department.
• Warning signs. Stop using a switch, outlet or light and call a licensed electrician if a plate is hot or discolored, you hear buzzing or crackling, you smell burning or hot plastic, lights flicker or dim when other things switch on, you see sparks, or a breaker trips or a fuse blows repeatedly. A dimmer can run slightly warm in normal use; a hot plate is not normal.
• Changing bulbs. Turn a light off and let the bulb cool before you change it. Use a bulb no higher in wattage than the fixture's label allows, counting the bulb's actual watts, and if the fixture is enclosed, use a bulb its package says is suitable for enclosed fixtures. If a fixture has no wattage label, use a bulb of 60 watts or less (25 watts for fixtures that take miniature bulbs), as the Consumer Product Safety Commission advises.
• Lamps and cords. Keep lamps and bulbs away from curtains, bedding and anything that can burn. Do not run cords under rugs, across doorways or pinched under furniture, and replace a damaged cord rather than repairing it. Use extension cords only for temporary use.
• Damp areas. In bathrooms, kitchens and other damp areas, use only fixtures marked for the location, and keep plug-in lamps away from water. Where a fixture may go near a tub, shower or sink is set by the electrical code your area has adopted; your electrician and inspector decide it.
• Listed products and recalls. Buy lamps, bulbs and plug-in lights marked by a recognized testing laboratory (UL, ETL, CSA and others), and check lamps and bulbs for recalls at cpsc.gov.
• Eyes. Do not stare into a bright bulb or LED from close range, and keep bright blue or colored indicator lights out of young children's direct view.
• Flicker and light sensitivity. If a slow-motion video or your own eyes show a light flickering, stop using it at that setting. Flicker can bother some people, including some people with migraine; if light or flicker gives you headaches or eye pain, see a doctor. This manual does not give medical advice.
• Falls. Lighting is one of several things that affect falls. If someone in your home has fallen or is unsteady, talk with their physician; plug-in nightlights and lamps you can reach from bed are first steps you can take today.
• Renters. Do not alter wiring or fixtures you do not own. Ask your landlord in writing before any change, and use plug-in and battery lights in the meantime.
• Codes and rules. Local codes, permits, lease and association rules and manufacturer instructions take precedence over anything on this site.

Third-party links and products

The site links to tutorials, suppliers, books and other resources we found useful. We do not control those sites, do not endorse or guarantee anything on them, receive no payment or commission from them, and are not responsible for their content, availability, accuracy or practices. Product and brand names mentioned belong to their respective owners and are used only to identify them.

No warranty; limitation of liability

The site and its content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Field Assembly LLC, Reassembly and the people who made this site are not liable for any loss, injury or damage, direct or indirect, arising from your use of the site or reliance on its content. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of this may not apply to you.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from the site or these terms will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

Changes and availability

We may change, pause or remove the site or any part of it at any time without notice. We have no obligation to keep it available or up to date.

2. Privacy

Short version: this site does not collect, store or sell any information about you. If you choose to email us, we receive your address and your message.

• No accounts, no sign-up. You never need to give us an email address to use the pages. There is nothing to join.
• No analytics, no tracking, no advertising, no cookies. The site sets no cookies and includes no third-party scripts, pixels or embedded content. Fonts are served from this site, not from a font service.
• Your setup stays on your device. What you type into the setup form, and the progress checkboxes, are saved only in your browser's local storage so the site can show them back to you. They are never transmitted to us. Clearing your browser data, or using the "Clear my setup" button, deletes them.
• Share links contain your setup. The "copy a link" feature encodes your answers into the web address itself so you can open them on another device or send them to a helper. Anyone who has that link can see those answers. Do not put anything in the setup form that you would not want in a link you share.
• If you email us, we use your address only to reply, and we do not add it to any list.
• Hosting logs. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which, like any web host, processes technical request data (such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, under Cloudflare's privacy policy. We do not use that data to identify or track visitors.
• Links to other sites take you to services with their own privacy practices.
• Children. The site is not directed at children under 13 and we knowingly collect no information from anyone.

3. Accessibility

We want this manual to be usable by everyone, including people who use screen readers, keyboards, magnification or high contrast. The site is built to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA. Specifically:

• Semantic HTML with headings, landmarks, lists and tables with header rows; a "skip to content" link; visible keyboard focus on every control.
• Every form field has a label; checkboxes and radio buttons are labeled; the menu button reports its state.
• Text and interface colors meet contrast minimums in both light and dark modes; information is never conveyed by color alone.
• Text resizes with browser settings; layouts reflow to narrow screens; no content flashes or moves on its own.
• Diagrams have text descriptions; icons in the navigation are decorative and accompanied by text.

Known limitations: wide reference tables scroll horizontally on small screens, and printable pages depend on your browser's print settings. If anything on this site is hard for you to use, please tell us through fieldassembly.net and we will try to fix it.

4. Copyright and sharing

© 2026 Field Assembly LLC. The text, structure and code of this manual are copyrighted. You are welcome to use the manual for your own home, share the link freely, print pages for personal use, and quote short passages with attribution. Please do not republish the manual or substantial parts of it, sell it, or present it as your own. Linked third-party material belongs to its respective owners. The self-hosted fonts (Cormorant Garamond and Inter) are used under the SIL Open Font License.

Built by Reassembly for Field Assembly LLC.