Tell us four things about the work you are planning and find out whether California's energy code pulls a CF1R report into your permit — and which version of the form that would be.
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.
California regulates building energy use through Part 6 of Title 24, and the CF1R is the document that proves a design meets it. Touch anything on a residential permit that changes how the building performs and one is normally required. Three kinds of scope bring it on.
Floor area that becomes conditioned. A house, a detached ADU, a room added on, a garage turned into living space, a JADU carved out of somewhere that was never heated — all of them produce square footage that now has to be warmed or cooled. New conditioned area has to be shown to comply, and that showing is a CF1R.
Work on the envelope. New glazing, siding with insulation going in behind it, added insulation, a roof rebuilt — every one of those changes how well the building holds temperature. That scope gets recorded on a CF1R-ALT, and whatever performance numbers appear on the form have to be the same numbers printed in the fenestration schedule.
Mechanical changeouts. Put in a different water heater, ductwork, heat pump, condenser or furnace and the energy code follows the equipment. That scope also lands on a CF1R-ALT, and the installer normally owes matching CF2R installation paperwork plus CF3R HERS verification before anything gets signed off.
The usual exemption is work that is purely finish-level: cabinets, flooring, paint, fixtures, a non-structural partition moved — with the envelope untouched and no mechanical work. That generally sits outside the energy code, although plenty of cities still want a cover-sheet note confirming as much.
The correction we see most is not an absent CF1R. It is a CF1R that contradicts the drawings. Reviewers in San Jose, Sunnyvale, Fremont and Milpitas read the form against the plans row by row, and a report calling for U-0.30 glass alongside a schedule listing U-0.32 is enough to send the set back.
Registration is next. Once HERS field verification is part of the picture, the CF1R has to go through an approved data registry and come back carrying a registration number. A plain printout will not survive intake.
Third is scope drifting. The job begins as a finish remodel, a wall gets opened, the furnace gets replaced while everything is accessible, and now the permit needs a CF1R-ALT nobody priced. Running the energy calculations once, early, against the full scope is the cheaper order of operations.
We produce registered Title 24 CF1R energy calculations and hold them in step with the sheets, so a reviewer reading both finds them saying the same thing. For an accessory dwelling unit, our ADU and JADU design page explains where the energy work sits in that scope.
It is the certificate of compliance for Part 6 of Title 24, California's energy code. The form records the insulation, glazing, air sealing, heating, cooling and water heating your design is counting on to stay inside the energy budget. It becomes part of the permit set, and the reviewer checks it against your drawings before a permit is issued.
Normally yes. Because a detached unit is entirely new conditioned space, it is handled as new construction and gets a CF1R-NCB of its own instead of being absorbed into the main house's paperwork. Attached units and JADUs built inside existing walls are usually documented as an addition or an alteration instead.
Usually. Changing out glazing counts as altering the envelope, so most counters here expect a CF1R-ALT stating the performance figures for whatever is going in. On a small swap of like for like, a handful of jurisdictions will settle for a short prescriptive form — worth a phone call before you commission a full report.
The person responsible for the energy documentation signs it. When HERS field verification applies, the form additionally has to be filed with an approved data registry, which issues the registration number the city looks for. We prepare and register it as part of the permit package.
No. It reflects how these scopes are usually treated, which is enough to plan and budget around. What your permit actually requires comes from the building department reviewing your specific drawings, and we confirm it with them rather than relying on a general rule.
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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