Terms of Use
Last updated: October 19, 2026
Site: https://www.btulogic.com (the “Site”)
Operator: John Carioto (“I,” “me,” “the operator”)
Contact: john.carioto@gmail.com
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Site. By using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Site. If you accept an invite and create a Backend account, you must tick the sign-up box agreeing to these Terms and the Privacy Policy; by ticking it and creating the account, you accept these Terms, including the account rules in Sections 5 and 6.
1. Who operates the Site
The Site is a personal informational workbench operated by John Carioto, an individual in New Jersey.
“BTU Logic” and btulogic.com are a brand / workbench name only. There is no formed company, LLC, corporation, or other registered legal entity named BTU Logic at this time. References to “BTU Logic” on the Site mean this personal project and brand, not a separate legal entity. An LLC may be formed later; until then, these Terms bind you and me as the individual operator.
I do not hold a Professional Engineer (PE) license (or equivalent). Nothing on the Site is a professional engineering stamp, sealed drawing, code compliance certification, or formal engineering advice. I am not a licensed engineer offering services through the Site, and I am not holding the Site out as a licensed engineering firm.
2. What the Site provides
The Site may include, among other things:
- News — topical briefings and rollups. Some content may be sample, placeholder, or generated material until live pipelines replace it. Sources are third-party; I do not control their accuracy. An optional email digest of public topics is available if you subscribe and confirm; it is not an account.
- Articles — occasional long-form notes I write. They are separate from daily News briefings and are informational only.
- Engineering question of the day — original multiple-choice practice items (PE-level tone). They are not PE exam credit, not NCEES materials, and not a substitute for licensure or professional judgment.
- Tools — utilities such as weather bins, degree-day calculators, validators, and unit converters that work with weather/file formats (including EPW, TMY2, TMY3, and NSRDB-style CSV). These are engineering utilities, not certified weather products, calibrated instruments, or code-approved calculation engines.
- Games — recreational features (for example, Pong). For entertainment only.
- Backend — an invite-only area. People I invite sign in with their own individual account and can see only the sections I have granted them, such as Paper trading (a view-only, simulated, paper-only portfolio for experimentation only; not investment advice) and the Crawler game beta. The Backend also holds an unofficial All Saints events concept demo that is not available to members (see Section 6.3). See Sections 5 and 6.
The Site is free. I may change, add, or remove features at any time without notice.
3. Use at your own risk — no professional reliance
You use the Site entirely at your own risk. Access is free and voluntary. You are solely responsible for how you use (or don’t use) anything you see or download here.
- Do not rely on News, Articles, practice questions, Tools, Games, or Backend content (including Paper trading, which is for experimentation only) as a substitute for licensed professional judgment, stamped calculations, manufacturer data, local code officials, site-specific engineering, or licensed financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.
- Weather-bin, degree-day, and similar outputs are estimates or transformations of input files you (or public datasets) provide. Garbage in, garbage out. I do not warrant fitness for design, energy modeling, compliance, bidding, or litigation.
- HVAC and building-related tools are not certified products and carry no warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose beyond what the law does not allow me to disclaim.
If your work requires a PE stamp, sealed documents, or certified data, hire a licensed professional (I am not one) and use validated, project-approved tools.
4. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Break or probe the Site’s security, sign-in, rate limits, or access controls, or try to reach Backend sections, accounts, or data you have not been granted
- Guess or test passwords, 2FA codes, recovery codes, or invite/reset links, or use automated tools against sign-in
- Use someone else’s account, or let someone else use yours
- Share, sell, post, or forward an invite or password-reset link, or the contents of a Backend section, to anyone else without my permission
- Upload malware, illegal content, or material you do not have rights to use
- Scrape, crawl, bulk-download, overload, or disrupt the Site in a way that harms availability for others (ordinary search-engine indexing of public pages is fine)
- Copy, decompile, or redistribute the Crawler game build or other Backend materials
- Misrepresent Tool outputs as certified, stamped, or officially approved
- Harass, threaten, or abuse me or anyone else through the Site
- Use the Site for anything unlawful
I may suspend, restrict, or delete any account, or revoke access, if these rules are broken (see Section 5.6).
5. Backend accounts
5.1 Invite only
Backend accounts are by personal invitation only. There is no public sign-up. An invite is a single-use link that expires; I deliver it to you myself, not by email from the Site, and it is meant only for the person I gave it to. Sign-up asks for a username and password, not an email address. Password resets work the same way: I give you a single-use reset link; there is no email-based reset. Being invited does not entitle you to any particular section or to keep an account.
To create an account you must tick the box confirming you are 18 or older and the box agreeing to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not create an account.
5.2 Eligibility
You must be 18 or older to create or use a Backend account. By accepting an invite you confirm that you are. If I learn an account holder is under 18, I will disable and delete the account.
5.3 Accurate information; one person per account
Use a username that is not misleading, offensive, or someone else’s identity. Each account is for one person. Do not create more than one account unless I ask you to, and do not share an account.
5.4 Keeping your account secure
You are responsible for activity under your account. Keep your password, authenticator device, and recovery codes private and secure; recovery codes work like spare keys and each works once. Use a strong password you do not use elsewhere. If you think someone else has your password, codes, or a signed-in device, change your password, sign out other sessions from your account page, and tell me promptly at john.carioto@gmail.com. I am not responsible for loss caused by your failure to keep credentials secure.
5.5 Section access is at my discretion
A new account starts with no sections. Which sections you can see is entirely up to me. I may grant, change, or remove access to any section, or remove a section from the Site altogether, at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice.
5.6 Suspension and termination
I may suspend, disable, or delete any account, sign out its sessions, or revoke any invite, at any time, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice — including for breaking these Terms, for security reasons, or because I am winding down a feature. You may stop using your account at any time and may ask me to delete it (see the Privacy Policy).
5.7 No availability promise
The Backend is a personal project. There is no service level, uptime, or support commitment. Sections may be slow, broken, reset, or unavailable, and data in them may be lost or changed.
5.8 Content you provide
Members cannot currently upload notes or files to the Backend. If I later let you submit content (for example, notes, files, bug reports, or feedback), you keep whatever rights you have in it, you are responsible for it, and you must have the right to share it. You grant me a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, copy, display, and use it as needed to run, secure, and improve the Site, and I may remove it at any time. Feedback or bug reports you send me (including the Crawler game’s copy-and-paste bug report) may be used to improve the Site without any obligation to you.
6. Backend sections
6.1 Paper trading (for experimentation only; simulated; view only)
- Paper trading is a simulated, paper-only portfolio for experimentation only. It uses no real money, places no real orders, and is not connected to any brokerage account.
- Members can view only. Members cannot enter trades or change anything in it.
- Nothing in Paper trading is investment, financial, tax, or legal advice, a recommendation, an offer, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security or other asset. Notes, “heuristics,” themes, and research links are my personal notes and third-party sources, shared for experimentation and informational purposes only.
- I am not a broker-dealer, investment adviser, financial planner, or tax professional, and I am not acting as one for you.
- Prices, fills, and other figures may be entered by hand, delayed, incomplete, or wrong, and third-party linked content is not checked by me.
- Simulated and past performance does not indicate future results. Simulated results do not reflect real trading costs, taxes, liquidity, or the emotional and practical realities of real money.
- Do your own research and talk to a licensed professional before making any real financial decision. Any decisions you make are yours alone.
6.2 Crawler (game beta)
The Crawler is a recreational game in beta. It is for entertainment only. In-game gold, items, and progress have no monetary value, cannot be exchanged for anything, and there are no prizes. Saves are kept in your own browser and may be lost when you clear site data, switch devices, or when the game is updated or reset. Beta builds may contain bugs.
6.3 All Saints events (unofficial concept demo)
The All Saints events section is an unofficial concept demo of a fundraising-event website that I built on my own to present to All Saints Academy. It is not affiliated with, approved by, or endorsed by All Saints Academy or its Home & School Association, and it is not the official school site. It takes no live payments: checkout, ticket, and donation flows there are simulated only and make no real charges, and no payment details are collected. Event names, dates, prices, prizes, and other details shown are placeholders and are not offers. I receive no money through this section. Unless and until the school approves it, this section is not available to members; I use it only to present the concept.
7. Optional News topic email digests
If you subscribe, I may email a digest of the public News topics you selected. Digests can include informational, sample, or generated briefing material. They are not professional advice, an account, or a guaranteed delivery service.
- Confirm via the link in email before anything is sent (double opt-in).
- Unsubscribe at any time using the link in those emails.
- Delivery is not guaranteed (provider limits, spam filters, or outages may drop mail).
- How subscriber data is handled is described in the Privacy Policy.
8. Intellectual property
Unless otherwise noted, Site design, branding (including the BTU Logic name as used on the Site), original Site content, and Backend materials (including the Crawler game) are owned by me or my licensors. Third-party news headlines, excerpts, and linked articles remain owned by their respective publishers. Tool input files you upload remain yours; you grant me a limited license to process them solely to run the Tool for you. Access to a Backend section is a personal, revocable, non-transferable permission to view and use it on the Site; it does not transfer any ownership.
You may not copy large portions of the Site for republication without permission, except as fair use or other applicable law allows.
9. Third-party links and sources
News items, Paper trading research links (part of a feature for experimentation only, not investment advice), and other pages may link to external sites. I am not responsible for third-party content, availability, accuracy, or privacy practices.
10. Disclaimers
THE SITE AND ALL CONTENT, TOOLS, ACCOUNTS, AND BACKEND SECTIONS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
I do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that accounts, game saves, files, or Backend data will never be lost. Keep your own backups of anything important.
11. No liability for your use of the Site
Because use is at your own risk and the Site is offered free of charge as a personal workbench:
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, I HAVE NO LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SITE, OR FROM RELIANCE ON ANY CONTENT, TOOL OUTPUT, NEWS ITEM, GAME, ACCOUNT, PAPER TRADING INFORMATION (A SIMULATED, PAPER-ONLY FEATURE FOR EXPERIMENTATION ONLY, NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE), OR BACKEND MATERIAL — INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, AND ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, INVESTMENT LOSSES, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY — WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.
If a court of competent jurisdiction holds that some liability cannot be fully disclaimed or waived under applicable law, then (a) these Terms still limit liability to the fullest extent that law allows, and (b) any remaining liability is limited to the amount you paid me to use the Site for the claim period (currently $0 for public pages and Backend accounts).
Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude liability that New Jersey (or other applicable) law says cannot be excluded — for example, liability for my own intentional misconduct where that cannot be waived.
12. Indemnity
If you misuse the Site or your account, misrepresent Tool outputs, or violate these Terms, you agree to defend and indemnify me against resulting claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees, to the extent allowed by law.
13. Privacy
My Privacy Policy explains what limited information I handle, including for Backend accounts. By using the Site, you also acknowledge that policy.
14. Changes
I may update these Terms by posting a new version on this page with a revised “Last updated” date. Continued use after changes means you accept the updated Terms. If you have a Backend account, I will also note material changes in the Backend (or tell you another reasonable way) before they take effect; if you do not agree, stop using your account and ask me to delete it.
If I later form an LLC (or other entity) to operate the Site, I may update these Terms to name that entity as operator; until then, the operator remains John Carioto personally.
15. Termination and survival
These Terms apply for as long as you use the Site. If your account or access ends for any reason, your permission to use the Backend ends immediately. Sections 3 (use at your own risk), 4 (acceptable use, for conduct before termination), 5.8 (content you provide), 6.1 (Paper trading: for experimentation only, not investment advice), 8 (intellectual property), 10 (disclaimers), 11 (no liability), 12 (indemnity), 15, and 16 (governing law) continue to apply after termination.
16. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, excluding conflict-of-law rules. Courts located in New Jersey (state or federal) are the exclusive venue for disputes, unless applicable consumer law requires otherwise.
17. Contact
Questions about these Terms: john.carioto@gmail.com
These Terms are a practical site policy for a personal workbench with invite-only member accounts, not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney on high-stakes matters (professional liability, PE practice, securities or investment-adviser questions, forming an LLC, commercial SaaS, or paid services).