Get a planning range for a Title 24 CF1R energy compliance report on a Bay Area ADU, addition, remodel or new home, including the registry fee and the turnaround you should plan around.
Nothing here is a quote, a bid, an engineering determination or a boundary determination. We are a drafting and design firm: we coordinate with a licensed structural engineer and a Licensed Land Surveyor when your project needs one, rather than performing or stamping that work ourselves.
CF1R stands for Certificate of Compliance, Residential. It is the Title 24 Part 6 energy document showing that a proposed building or alteration meets the California Energy Code. It is prepared before construction, registered through an approved data registry, and submitted alongside the drawings at permit application. Most Bay Area building departments will not take in a residential submittal without one once the scope touches conditioned space, windows, insulation, HVAC or water heating.
It is more than a form. The report records window U-factors and SHGC values, wall and roof insulation, duct location and sealing, water heater type, ventilation and any required lighting measures, and it ties every one of those values back to the drawings. When the drawings and the CF1R disagree, plan check finds it. That is the practical argument for producing the energy report and the permit set together rather than buying them from unrelated parties and hoping the numbers line up.
The CF1R is only the first of three document families, and this is the part homeowners are rarely told up front. The CF2R installation certificates are completed by the installing contractor after the work is built, confirming that what went in matches what was specified. The CF3R verification certificates come from an independent HERS rater who tests the result in the field — typically duct leakage, refrigerant charge or whole-house ventilation. Neither set comes from this report or from us.
Two practical consequences. First, the range above covers the CF1R and its registration, not the later HERS field testing, which the rater bills separately. Second, choosing the performance path can trigger HERS-verified measures that the prescriptive path would not, so the cheaper-looking compliance path sometimes costs more downstream. That trade-off is worth settling before the model is built rather than after.
For the full service, including how energy compliance is coordinated with the drawing set, see Title 24 and CF1R energy calculations. ADUs carry their own modelling quirks around shared walls, small conditioned floor areas and detached status, which are covered on the ADU and JADU design page.
A CF1R is the residential Certificate of Compliance for Title 24 Part 6, the California Energy Code. It is prepared before construction, registered through an approved data registry, and submitted with the drawings at permit application. You generally need one for new homes, ADUs, additions, and alterations that change windows, insulation, HVAC or water heating. Your building department confirms the exact trigger for your scope.
Prescriptive is simpler and cheaper to produce: the building has to match a fixed package of required values. Performance builds an energy model of the whole building and allows trade-offs, which is what you need when a design will not meet one prescriptive value but compensates elsewhere. Performance costs more because of the modelling time, and it can trigger HERS-verified measures. The right path depends on the design, so it is worth deciding before the report is built.
No. The range covers the CF1R report and its registry fee. HERS verification happens later in the field and is billed by the independent rater who performs the testing. The CF2R installation certificates come from your installing contractor after the work is built. Both are separate from this report.
Standard turnaround is usually three to five business days once we have the drawings, window schedule and equipment information. Rush turnaround of one to two business days is possible and is priced accordingly. Missing information is the usual cause of delay, not the calculation itself, so settling the window and HVAC specifications first is the fastest way to keep it on schedule.
Residential or commercial, drafting or Title 24 — send a few details and we'll follow up with next steps and a free quote.
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