Methodology Ledger

You upload your architectural plan PDF, the full set including the coversheet or site plan, proposed floor plan, and elevations. The file is uploaded directly to private encrypted storage from your browser; no email-the-PDF, no shared drive.

We accept the same plan set your AHJ will see at permit submittal. Nothing is repackaged or pre-processed before it lands in the extraction step.

A large language model reads the entire PDF and extracts every Title 24 input we need: climate zone, conditioned floor area, number of stories, wall and ceiling assemblies, window count and ratings, HVAC topology, water-heater type, and the addition or alteration scope if the project carries one.

Every extracted field carries a page citation back to the original PDF. When a value appears in the dashboard or on the design-option cards, you can click through to the exact page the LLM read it from, so you (and our reviewer) can verify the source in seconds instead of re-reading the entire plan set.

A certified ECC Rater on our staff verifies the LLM's extraction against the plans, every field, every page citation. Anything that doesn't match the drawings gets corrected before the project advances. The reviewer is the same person who signs the CF1R at the end, so they own the result the whole way through.

We publish the rater's license number on the credentials page so you can verify it independently against the CHEERS registry.

Our reviewer runs the project through the official Title 24 compliance verification engine, the same engine California uses to evaluate every residential energy-code submittal in the state. If the project doesn't pass on the first try, we tighten the design (HVAC efficiency, water-heater tier, window U-factor, whatever is binding) until it does, then re-run.

You see the chosen design on your dashboard before this step starts. Any tightening we apply during compliance verification is summarized back to you before CHEERS registration, so there are no surprises in the final CF1R.

We register the passing CF1R with CHEERS, California's state-approved residential energy registry. CHEERS then emails your responsible designer (the licensed architect, engineer, or other Responsible Person on the project) a signature request.

We can't sign on the designer's behalf, that countersignature is required by law and only they can apply it. If the designer is slow, we'll send periodic reminders, but ultimately this step's turnaround depends on how quickly they sign in CHEERS.

As soon as the designer countersigns in CHEERS, the registered, signed CF1R PDF lands on your project dashboard. You download it and submit it to your AHJ alongside the rest of your construction documents.

If the building department issues a Title 24 correction letter on something we generated, we fix it at no additional charge for as long as your permit application stays open. See the plan-check guarantee for the exact scope.