Transparent by design

Score Methodology

The Home Independence Score is a simple educational planning tool. It is not a scientifically validated assessment, inspection, engineering calculation, certification, or safety guarantee.

Raw score

Seven questions cover water, food without refrigeration, light and communication, critical powered needs, backup electricity, a safe fallback, and essential-load awareness. Every answer visibly adds zero to three points, for a raw total from 0 to 21.

• 0–7: Foundation Stage
• 8–14: Partly Covered
• 15–21: Stronger 72-Hour Foundation

The site never turns that total into a percentage of “independence,” because the questions cannot measure that precisely.

First-priority rule

Critical powered needs scoring zero or one appear first regardless of the total. Otherwise, water scoring zero or one appears first. Otherwise, the lowest-scoring area appears first, using this safety-oriented tie order: critical powered needs, water, safe fallback, food, light and communication, backup electricity, and essential-load awareness. If every answer scores three, maintenance and retesting appears first.

No product influence

Product interest is not a question and adds no points. The score is calculated before an optional affiliate resource appears. The result does not recommend, qualify, approve, or predict the performance of any product.