Estimate the cost of a Title 24 CF1R energy compliance report for a Bay Area ADU, addition, remodel or new home, including the registry fee and typical turnaround.
Every result is a planning estimate, not a quote or an engineering determination. Real numbers depend on site conditions, existing structure, engineering requirements, and your jurisdiction’s current fee schedule. For structural and engineering work we coordinate with a licensed engineer — we do not perform or stamp engineering ourselves. Get a project-specific estimate before committing to a budget.
CF1R stands for Certificate of Compliance, Residential. It is the Title 24 Part 6 energy document that demonstrates your proposed building or alteration meets the California Energy Code. It is prepared before construction, registered through an approved data registry, and submitted with your drawings at permit application. Most Bay Area building departments will not accept a residential submittal without one when the scope touches conditioned space, windows, insulation, HVAC or water heating.
The report is more than a form. It records your 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 those values back to the drawings. When the drawings and the CF1R disagree, plan check catches it, which is why the energy report and the permit set should be produced together rather than bought separately from unrelated parties.
The CF1R is only the first of three document families, and this is the point most homeowners are never told. 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 are completed by an independent HERS rater who tests the results in the field, typically duct leakage, refrigerant charge or whole-house ventilation. Neither of those comes from this report or from us. They are produced during and after construction by the contractor and the rater.
Two practical consequences. First, the estimate above covers the CF1R and its registration, not the later HERS field testing, which is billed separately by the rater. Second, choosing the performance path can trigger HERS-verified measures that the prescriptive path would not, so a slightly cheaper compliance path can cost more downstream. That trade-off is worth discussing before the model is built, not after.
For the full service, including how energy compliance is coordinated with the drawing set, see Title 24 and CF1R energy calculations. ADUs have their own modelling quirks around shared walls, small conditioned floor areas and detached status, covered on the Title 24 for ADUs 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 your 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 estimate 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 installation certificates, the CF2R forms, come from your installing contractor after the work is built. Those 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 delay, not the calculation itself, so having the window and HVAC specifications settled first is the fastest way to keep it on schedule.
Tell us what you're building and we'll get back to you with next steps — usually within one business day.
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