2.1 Overview

The California Building Standards Code is Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations and includes 12 parts covering all aspects of building construction regulations in California. The Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Energy Code) is Part 6 of Title 24. Primary responsibility for compliance with the Energy Code rests with the builder and building owner. The builder or building owner must demonstrate compliance with the Energy Code to an enforcement agency. The California Energy Commission (CEC) does not directly enforce the Energy Code. Enforcement agencies have the primary responsibility to issue a building permit for newly constructed buildings or additions and alterations to existing buildings and enforcement of all Parts of Title 24, including the Energy Code.

Most enforcement agencies are typically associated with a city or county government but can also include other agencies such as the California Division of the State Architect (for public schools). This chapter (Chapter 2) of the Nonresidential and Multifamily Compliance Manual is intended to show how compliance (by the builder) and enforcement (by the enforcement agency) of the Energy Code is achieved in the typical building project permitting process. Most enforcement agencies follow some version of the permitting process recommended by the International Code Council (ICC). Figure 2.1-1 shows an idealized version of the ICC permitting process.

Figure 2.1-1: Idealized International Code Council Permitting Process
for Building Permit Applications

To assist the builder, building owner, and enforcement agency, the CEC created four categories of compliance documents used to demonstrate compliance with the Energy Code for nonresidential construction projects and multifamily projects with four habitable stories or more:

• Certificates of compliance documents (NRCCs) are completed by the project proponent and submitted to the enforcement agency during the plan review phase.

• Certificates of installation (NRCI) are completed by the installing technician or contractor during construction and submitted to the enforcement agency during the project inspection phase.

• Certificates of acceptance (NRCA) are completed by the technician (may be in-house or third-party) who checks compliance of the installation with the Commission’s acceptance testing requirements and submitted to the enforcement agency during the final inspection phase and prior to the enforcement agency issuing the certificate of occupancy. For lighting controls and mechanical system, the NRCA must be completed by a technician certified by a CEC-approved certification provider to perform the acceptance tests.

• Certificates of verification (NRCV, part of the CF3Rs) are required in some relatively rare instances. They are completed by an independent, third-party agent certified by a CEC-approved Home Energy Rating System (HERS) provider and submitted to the enforcement agency during the final inspection phase and prior to the enforcement agency issuing the certificate of occupancy. Alternatively, the Certificate of verification can be waived if the related NRCA is completed by a certified Acceptance Testing Technician (ATT).

For residential construction projects, including multifamily projects with three habitable stories or less, the CEC created three categories of compliance documents for Energy Code compliance:

• Certificates of compliance (CF1R) are completed by the project proponent and submitted to the enforcement agency during the plan review phase.

• Certificates of installation (CF2R) are completed by the installing technician or contractor during construction and submitted to the enforcement agency during the project inspection phase.

• Certificates of verification (CF3R) are completed by an independent, third-party agent certified by a CEC-approved field verification and diagnostic testing provider and submitted to the enforcement agency during the final inspection phase and prior to the enforcement agency issuing the certificate of occupancy.

The independent, third-party agents responsible for completion of the certificates of verification are made available through the CEC’s Home Energy Rating System (HERS) program. The HERS program consists of providers, approved by the CEC to train, certify, and oversee HERS Raters, who perform specific tests on energy efficiency features as required by the Energy Code. The related compliance process requires participation from the architect, building designer, engineers, energy consultants, contractors, the owner, HERS Raters, and others. In this compliance process, the HERS Raters are the agents that are independent and third-party from the builders, contractors and HERS Providers.

The certified technician responsible for the NRCAs are made available through the CEC’s Acceptance Test Technician Certification Provider (ATTCP) program. Certified technicians are referred to as acceptance test technicians (ATTs) and are required to perform the NRCA acceptance tests for lighting controls and mechanical systems. Unlike HERS Raters, ATTs are not required to be independent, third-party agents from the builder. ATTs can (and often do) perform the installation work as well as acceptance testing of the lighting controls or mechanical systems.

This chapter describes the overall compliance and enforcement process and responsibilities throughout the permitting process. The scope of the Nonresidential and Multifamily Compliance Manual includes newly constructed buildings as well as addition and alterations to existing buildings. Building types covered in this manual include all of the following occupancy groups:

• Group A: Assembly, this occupancy is a used for gatherings such as civic, social, religious function, recreation, food/drink consumption, or waiting for transportation.

• Group B: Business, this occupancy is a used for functions such as an office or a professional or a service-type transaction.

• Group E: Educational, this occupancy is typically where six or more persons at any one time occupy a space for educational purposes through the twelfth grade.

• Group F: Factory and Industrial, this occupancy involves assembling, disassembling, fabricating, finishing, manufacturing, packaging, repair, and processing operations that would not be otherwise classified as a Group H or Group S occupancy.

• Group H: High Hazard, this occupancy includes manufacturing, processing, generation, or storage of materials that can constitute a physical or health hazard. Group H occupancies are classified into five high-hazard areas that identify the type of hazard for each group.

• Group I: Institutional, where care or supervision is provided to people who are or are not capable of self-preservation without physical assistance or in which people are detained for penal or correctional purposes or in which the liberty of the occupants is restricted.

• Group M: Mercantile, involving the display and sale of merchandise, stocking of goods, and is accessible to the public.

• Group S: Storage, this occupancy involves a building that is used for storage purposes.

• Group U: Utility and Miscellaneous, this occupancy involves a building or structure that is used as an accessory or miscellaneous use not classified as any other specific occupancy.

• Hotel/Motels have six or more guest rooms or a lobby serving six or more guest rooms, where the guest rooms are intended or designed to be used, or which are used, rented, or hired out to be occupied, or which are occupied for sleeping purposes by guests, and all conditioned spaces within the same building envelope. Hotel/motel also includes all conditioned spaces that are (1) on the same property as the hotel/motel, (2) served by the same central heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system as the hotel/motel, and (3) integrally related to the functioning of the hotel/motel as such, including, but not limited to, exhibition facilities, meeting and conference facilities, food service facilities, lobbies, and laundries. Hotel/motel also includes:

o Group R-1, sleeping units in this occupancy group are primarily transient in nature including vacation timeshare properties. This occupancy group is most often associated with hotels and motels.

o Group R-2, sleeping units or more than two dwelling units where the occupants are primarily permanent. For example: convents, dormitories, nontransient hotels, or vacation timeshare properties.

Additionally, the Nonresidential and Multifamily Compliance Manual includes a chapter regarding multifamily buildings (Chapter 11). Multifamily buildings are considered separate from nonresidential buildings. The Energy Code defines multifamily buildings as a building of occupancy group R-2 (other than a hotel/motel building or timeshare property), R-3 (that is a nontransient congregate residence, other than boarding houses of more than six guests and alcohol or drug abuse recovery homes of more than six guests), or R-4, more than 5 people but no more than 16, excluding staff, who reside on a 24-hour basis where the occupants are in a supervised residential environment and receive custodial care.

2.1.1 Manufacturer Certification for Equipment, Products, and Devices

During the permit application development phase, certain equipment, products, and devices must be selected for installation or use that are certified to be compliant with the Energy Code. These items are identified on the NRCC or the CF1Rs or both and are verified during inspection by the enforcement agency.

The equipment, products, and devices must be certified to the CEC by the manufacturer that it meets requirements under the Energy Code. The CEC makes no claim that the listed equipment, products, or devices meet the indicated requirements or, if tested, will confirm the indicated results. Inclusion on these lists confirms only that a manufacturer certification has been submitted to and accepted by the CEC. See the CEC’s website for additional information about the required information for manufacturers to certify products and for lists of certified products:

In nonresidential buildings, the following are examples of products that must be certified by the manufacturer:

2.1.2 HERS Program Compliance Document Registration

§10-103

Reference Residential Appendix RA2

Reference Joint Appendix JA7
Reference Nonresidential Appendix NA1 and NA2

The HERS program was developed by the CEC to help ensure compliance with the Energy Code for residential projects that need to include a HERS Rater to perform required field verification and diagnostic tests (HERS Verification). For nonresidential projects, a HERS Rater may be required to perform a verification in two instances: duct leakage tests (for single zone HVAC systems with ducts primarily located outside of conditioned space) and compact plumbing designs.

Registration of residential compliance documentation (CF1Rs, CF2Rs, CF3Rs, and NRCVs) is required for any residential construction project for which a CF3R is required (not all residential construction projects require a CF3R). In this manual, the low-rise multifamily projects are the only residential projects that would be required to use the HERS program.

All residential compliance documents (CF1Rs, CF2Rs, and CF3Rs) submitted to the registry must be certified and signed by the applicable responsible person (§10-103) and the author of the document. The data registry will assign a unique registration number to each document when completed and certification (by an electronic signature) is provided by all signatories. The data registry will retain the unique registered documents, which are available via secure internet access to authorized users. This availability allows authorized users to make paper copies of the registered documents for purposes such as submitting to the enforcement agency, posting copies in the field for inspections, and providing copies to the building owner.

Authorized users of the registry include energy consultants, builders, building owners, construction contractors and installers, HERS Raters, enforcement agencies, and the CEC. Authorized users are granted access rights to the electronic data associated with the projects under their direct or shared control.

Registration requirements are described in this chapter and elsewhere in this manual. Also, Reference Joint Appendix Reference Joint Appendix JA7 provides detailed descriptions of document registration procedures and individual responsibilities for registration of CF1Rs, CF2Rs, and CF3Rs. More Details regarding registration requirements for NRCVs are found in Reference Nonresidential Appendix NA1 and NA2.