Title 24 reports for Mountain View permits.
Mountain View repealed its entire building chapter to make room for this. Ordinance No. 9.2025 is CEC-approved and running on every permit submitted since January 1, 2026 — and if you go looking for it in the Energy Code article, it is not there.
In force since January, filed under the green code
Ordinance No. 9.2025 is codified and CEC-approved for the 2025 code — adopted September 9, 2025, approved by the Energy Commission on 11/12/2025, and applied to every building and fire permit submitted on or after January 1, 2026. The city got there by demolition: 9.2025 repealed City Code Chapter 8, Articles I through XIV, and enacted a new Chapter 8. Article IX, the Energy Code article, adopts the 2025 California Energy Code by reference and amends nothing. Every operative provision sits in Article XII, the Green Building Code, adopted as mandatory CALGreen measures.
SEC. 8.94.05 decides a change-out. Alter a space-conditioning system in an existing single-family dwelling by installing or replacing an air conditioner and the altered system owes a heat pump as primary heating source per section 150.0(h)5, or the package: duct leakage at or under 10 percent, at least 300 CFM per ton with fan efficacy at or under 0.45 W/CFM in every control mode, refrigerant-charge verification, a vented attic to R-49, and ceiling-plane air sealing. Two documented off-ramps — panel capacity, or a heat pump 12,000 Btu/h larger — are filed before the permit issues, so an AC change-out here is settled on paper before equipment gets ordered. The ordinance names Climate Zone 4 in its operative text, three times. New construction points the same way: Table 101.10 puts heat pump space conditioning, a heat pump water heater, PV and battery-storage-ready wiring into every new house, duplex and ADU. Compliance is self-verified on a signed worksheet built into the plan set, the burden of proof on the applicant.
One thing that doesn’t change by city: my price and turnaround are flat statewide — $99 first report, $150 flat after, 24–48 hours on your first job. What differs city to city is what happens on the plan-check side before and after the CF1R lands in your permit set, which is what this page covers.
Prices
Flat fees, in writing before I start. No hourly, no bid package, no change-order games — the number on the quote is the number on the invoice.
One honest note
I’m not a licensed engineer or architect, and I don’t stamp drawings. On the CF1R I’m the documentation author — you stay the responsible designer. Nothing about your role on the job changes.
That’s on purpose. I’m not after your scope or your clients. I do one piece of the permit set — the piece that usually holds it up — and I do it fast.
Mountain View plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
What does Mountain View’s preapproved ADU track actually cover?
Which Mountain View review clock applies to my project?
Does the project need HERS field verification?
Sometimes — typically for duct leakage, refrigerant charge, or certain heat-pump and quality-insulation measures. The CF1R lists exactly which measures need it, and I’ll flag it in the email so it isn’t a surprise at inspection. The field testing itself is done by a third-party HERS rater the owner or contractor hires; that’s outside what I do.
What do you need from me to start?
A PDF of the architecturals and the project address. Floor plans, elevations and a window schedule is plenty.
You don’t need the HVAC or water heater picked. If the plans don’t call them out, I model what I’d normally specify for that job — and I list every assumption in the email so nothing is buried. Swap any of it and I rerun; that doesn’t count against your free revisions.
The design doesn’t have to be finished either. Early is often better, because that’s when a compliance problem is still cheap to fix.
Send your Mountain View plans.
The CF1R comes back with the change-out path or the Table 101.10 package already resolved, so the MVGBC worksheet you sign and build into the plan set matches what the energy model actually ran.