What an ECC Rater is
An ECC Rater — Energy Code Compliance Rater — is an individual certified by a CEC-approved Energy Code Compliance Provider (CHEERS is the only one currently approved in California) to perform on-site field verification and diagnostic testing of Title 24 measures. The credential is held by the person, not the firm: each rater carries an individual ID, completes initial CEC-approved training, passes a practical exam, and re-certifies on a periodic schedule.
The credential was renamed from HERS Rater (Home Energy Rating System Rater) to ECC Rater effective January 1, 2026, when the California Energy Commission retired the HERS branding across the residential program. The authority is unchanged — every active HERS Rater was recognized as an ECC Rater on the rename date. You'll see the new terminology on every CF1R / CF2R / CF3R generated under the 2025 code; older certificates still carry "HERS" labels.
What an ECC Rater is authorized to do
The CF1R sets the design. The CF2R confirms the installation. The CF3R confirms that the installed equipment performs the way the design promised. An ECC Rater is the only actor authorized to sign the CF3R for residential projects in California. That includes:
- Duct leakage testing — required under Title 24 for systems with ducts in unconditioned space. The rater pressurizes the duct system, measures leakage in CFM25, and certifies whether the design's sealed-duct target (typically 5% leakage) was achieved.
- Refrigerant charge verification — required for split-system air conditioners and heat pumps in CZ2 and CZ8–CZ15 under the 2025 code's RCA path. Rater measures sub-cooling and superheat, confirms charge is within manufacturer spec.
- Fan watt-draw measurement — confirms the installed air handler's fan power doesn't exceed the prescriptive 0.45 W/CFM target.
- Quality Insulation Installation (QII) — a series of pre-drywall inspections that verifies cavity insulation is installed without compression, gaps, or voids. QII is mandatory for additions >700 sf and triggers a meaningful compliance credit when properly executed.
- Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) ventilation verification — confirms the whole-house mechanical ventilation system delivers ASHRAE 62.2 airflow rates.
- Heat-pump capacity verification — for projects that take the heat-pump compliance credit, the rater confirms installed capacity at 47°F and 17°F matches the design.
- Field verification of high-performance windows, cool roofs, and other measures when the design relies on them for compliance.
Each verified measure produces a CF3R certificate registered in CHEERS. The AHJ typically requires the CF3R set before issuing final occupancy. No CF3Rs means the compliance package isn't closed — even if the CF1R was registered and the CF2R is signed.
ECC Rater vs CEA vs licensed engineer
These credentials get confused because they all show up adjacent to Title 24 paperwork, but they cover different work:
| Credential | Held by | What it authorizes |
|---|---|---|
| ECC Rater (formerly HERS Rater) | CHEERS (CEC-approved ECC Provider) | Field verification of installed measures (duct leakage, refrigerant charge, QII, IAQ ventilation, etc.) and CF3R signature. The only credential that authorizes physical site verification under the residential code. |
| CEA (Certified Energy Analyst) | AEE (Association of Energy Engineers), through CABEC | A documentation-author credential. CEAs prepare CF1R energy analyses and can sign as Documentation Author. They cannot perform field verification. |
| Licensed Architect / Engineer | California Architects Board / BPELSG | Signs the CF1R as Responsible Designer for any residential project (per B&P §§5500 et seq. / 6700 et seq.). Designs the building. Not authorized to perform CF3R field verification unless separately certified as an ECC Rater. |
| Unlicensed designer / builder | (no license required for the in-scope projects) | May sign the CF1R as Responsible Designer for wood-framed single-family up to two stories and small (≤4-unit) two-story wood-framed multifamily under B&P §§5537 / 6737.1. Not authorized for CF3R field verification. |
The credentials stack: a single individual can hold more than one, but most don't. A typical residential project ends up touching three different actors — a designer (or design firm) for the CF1R, a contractor for the CF2R, and an ECC Rater for the CF3R. The compliance package is only complete when all three certificates are signed and registered.
Paper sign-off vs verified compliance
A common misconception is that "Title 24 compliance" ends when the Title 24 report (CF1R) is signed. It doesn't. The CF1R is a design certificate — it asserts that, on paper, the proposed design meets the standard. The CF3R is the verification certificate that asserts the installed building actually meets the design. AHJs ask for both.
When a project is run by a paper-only consultant — a firm that prepares the CF1R but doesn't carry the ECC Rater credential — the field-verification work has to be subcontracted to an outside rater. That's a working arrangement, not a problem, but it adds coordination overhead: the outside rater has to learn the project from scratch, the design intent and the field reality have to be reconciled across two firms, and any failed test triggers a back-and-forth between the design author and the rater that could have been resolved in a single conversation.
When the firm authoring the design also holds the ECC Rater credential, the report is shaped by someone who's seen what passes verification in the field, not just on paper — design decisions stay field-aware, and equipment that's painful to install or measures that fail close-out don't end up specified in the first place. OM Consulting holds the credential and uses it to author the CF1R and register it with CHEERS. Note: this service covers Title 24 documentation only; the CF3R field-verification step at close-out is arranged separately, with the rater of your choice through the CHEERS directory.
Project types that benefit most from a design-aware ECC Rater
Every Title 24 residential project eventually needs an ECC Rater — the CF3R is required at occupancy. When you're choosing one, a few project types benefit disproportionately from picking a rater who's already familiar with the design assumptions rather than seeing the project for the first time at close-out:
- Projects taking the heat-pump credit. Heat-pump capacity verification at 47°F and 17°F is one of the more failure-prone field tests; design choices made on the CF1R (installed capacity, backup heat sizing) directly determine whether the test passes. A rater who has reviewed the CF1R already knows what the design committed to.
- Performance-path projects with tight margins. When the LSC efficiency margin is <1% (which happens in CZ12 and other cooling-bound zones), the difference between a passing CF3R and a failing one often comes down to a single QII inspection or a refrigerant-charge measurement. Tight margins reward early coordination between the design author and the rater.
- Additions and alterations with QII. Additions >700 sf trigger mandatory QII. The pre-drywall inspection has to be scheduled at exactly the right point in framing — too early and the cavity insulation isn't in; too late and the drywall is on. Aligning the design author and the rater on the project schedule helps sequence this without missed inspections.
- Production builders / multi-unit projects. Builders running multiple permits per month benefit from a consistent set of compliance assumptions carried across the portfolio — one design source, one set of standard details, one CHEERS Provider relationship to coordinate.
- Projects in cool-roof climates (CZ10–CZ15). Cool roof + radiant-barrier interactions are subtle (the Rule 856 mismatch is one of the most common failure modes), and field-verifying the installed roofing material against the Title 24 report assumption catches errors before they become CF3R red marks.
How to find an ECC Rater
The CHEERS public rater directory at cheers.org lists every active rater registered under the CHEERS Provider. You can search by ZIP, county, or name. Most raters work statewide for documentation projects; field verification is constrained by drive time, so most carry a local service area within ~100 miles of their base.
When evaluating a rater, the practical questions are: are they currently active (credentials lapse), what's their typical turnaround on a CF3R, do they handle the specific measures your project needs (not every rater is equipped for refrigerant charge testing, for instance), and how do they handle remedial work when a measure fails. A good rater treats a failed test as a data point — not a final verdict — and can advise on the remedial path that closes the compliance package without redesign.