How much does Title 24 compliance cost?
Pay-as-you-go is $200 per project, billed once at checkout, and your first project preview is free. If you file regularly, a Pro Membership ($195/year) drops the per-project price to $160, and a Firm Account ($3,750 for 25 non-expiring credits) brings it to $150 — see our pricing page. Whichever you choose, the fee covers the entire workflow from upload through a signed Title 24 report you can submit with your permit set, including compliance verification, CHEERS registration, and the designer-signature flow.
How long does the whole process take?
Most projects are documentation-ready within about 24 hours of upload. Final delivery depends on how quickly the responsible designer signs the CF1R that CHEERS emails to them, that step is between CHEERS and your designer.
What if my plans are messy or hand-drawn?
The PDF only needs to be legible, clear floor plans, elevations, and a coversheet with the address are enough. We will not pause to ask for clarifications: the design is generated from the information you provided, exactly as we read it. The Confirm step before payment is your one chance to correct anything we extracted, so review window counts, bedrooms, climate zone, and ceiling height carefully there.
What's the difference between the three design options?
Prescriptive is the standard code path, walls, windows, heating, cooling, and water heating all match the baseline numbers in the code book for your climate zone.
2x4 Performance keeps the familiar 2x4 R-15 wall framing and compensates with upgraded windows, roof, and equipment.
2x6 Enhanced steps the walls up to 2x6 R-21 cavity insulation so the rest of the design can ease back. Full breakdown on the Title 24 explained page.
Do I get to choose the HVAC and water heater?
Yes. After we analyze your plans, you select your preferred HVAC system and water heater type from a list of common residential equipment. We honor your selection if it pencils out for your climate zone and envelope; if it doesn't, we'll surface a firm-default lineup that will pass.
Can I get revisions after I select a design option?
It depends on your plan. On a walk-up project, your inputs, plans, and design choice are final once you lock in, and a different design after selection requires a new project at the standard $200 fee. Pro Membership and Firm Account customers get unlimited equipment and envelope revisions on the same project: you can switch between the three design options any time before compliance verification begins, at no extra charge. A change of scope or new plans still requires a new project. The Confirm step before payment is your last chance to correct anything we extracted.
What's the refund policy?
All sales are final. The flow is intentionally built so you see exactly what we extracted from your plans before Stripe is involved, upload, classify, sign in, analyze, and confirm the project details. Once payment is captured at checkout the $200 fee is non-refundable. Refunds are issued only at our sole discretion for clear billing errors or exceptional circumstances; see the Terms of Service for the full policy.
A Pro Membership is a separate annual subscription that auto-renews until you cancel (cancel anytime from your dashboard); the membership fee is non-refundable once charged. Firm Account credits are prepaid, non-expiring, and non-refundable. A project started with a promotional code isn't charged, so there's nothing to refund. A full refund of a project ends your access to that project; a partial refund is a goodwill credit that doesn't.
Who actually signs the CF1R?
The CF1R is signed by the project's Responsible Person, typically a California-licensed architect or engineer, except that B&P Code §§ 5537 and 6737.1 also let an unlicensed designer or builder take responsibility for wood-framed single-family homes up to two stories, and small (≤4-unit) two-story wood-framed multifamily buildings. You give us the designer's name and email during the workflow, and CHEERS sends the signature request directly to them once your project is registered.
Why does the climate zone matter so much?
California has 16 climate zones, and the prescriptive numbers (insulation R-values, window U-factors and SHGCs, roof assembly) all change by zone. Your project's ZIP code determines its climate zone, which we look up automatically. See the climate zones page for what changes between them.
Does this include solar / PV sizing?
Yes, when your project requires it. Newly-constructed homes and detached ADUs carry a Title 24 §150.1(c)14 PV requirement, we calculate the required kW from your conditioned floor area and dwelling-unit count using the state's prescriptive table, and the resulting kW lands on the report that gets delivered with your compliance package. Additions, alterations, and attached ADUs are exempt under §150.2(a), so no PV is required and none is shown on the report. Either way, we don't sell or install panels; your contractor uses the kW value on the report when sizing the system.
Is there a plan-check guarantee?
Yes. If the building department issues a Title 24 correction letter on a report we generated, and the cited comments come from something we modeled or extracted incorrectly, we'll revise the report and re-register it with CHEERS at no additional charge, for as long as your permit application stays open. Corrections caused by changes to the architectural design after we delivered (revised floor plan, new equipment selections, scope changes) are outside the guarantee. The full text lives on our guarantee page.
Does this work for ADUs and additions?
Yes, newly-constructed single-family homes, attached and detached ADUs, additions, and additions-with-alterations are all supported. The flow asks you to pick a scope at the Confirm step, and we route the project through the right Title 24 baseline (Newly Constructed vs. Addition+Alteration). Pure alterations are also supported.
How does the free first-project preview work?
Upload your plans, sign in, and we'll analyze them and show you all three design options without any payment up front. You only pay the $200 fee when you're ready to lock a design and have the signed compliance report delivered. It's a one-time benefit on your first project — your second and beyond pay the standard fee before the design picker unlocks.
What's the difference between an ECC Rater and a CEA?
A CEA (Certified Energy Analyst) is a paper-only credential — they can sign Title 24 documentation but can't perform field-side work. An ECC Rater (formerly HERS Rater) is certified on both the documentation side and the field side of the energy code — duct leakage, refrigerant charge, insulation quality, etc. OM Consulting is run by a certified ECC Rater, so the report is authored by someone trained on both sides of the code, not just the paperwork. 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. See the ECC Rater explainer for the full picture.
What happens if my project fails compliance on the first run?
We adjust the design path until it passes — that's part of the $200 fee, not an upcharge. Most failures are envelope-vs-HVAC tradeoffs that the High-Performance Envelope or Hybrid pathway resolves. If your specific climate zone and floor plan have a known gotcha (e.g. CZ12 PeakCool failures on marginal HVAC), we'll route around it before delivering.
Do you handle plan-check correction letters?
Yes. If your AHJ rejects the Title 24 portion of your submission with a correction letter, you can submit it through the project dashboard. We analyze the corrections, identify whether the fix is a routing change (within the existing report) or a scope change (requiring a fresh run), and deliver the revised paperwork. Most Title-24-only corrections are handled without a new fee. See the plan-check response guide.
How is your compliance report different from one a paper-only consultant produces?
The Title 24 report itself is the same document — the California Energy Commission defines what it has to contain. The difference is upstream: we run the analysis ourselves as a certified ECC Rater, so the report is prepared by someone trained on the field side too, not someone who's only ever worked on paper. That makes the design decisions field-aware — we don't specify equipment that's painful to install or measures that fail verification.