Title 24 reports for Palo Alto permits.
Cross 1,000 square feet on a Palo Alto house permitted before 2011 and the energy code stops being a pass-fail calculation and becomes a points test — 12 points, off a menu the city wrote. The air-conditioner half of the same ordinance does not start until permit applications filed on or after January 1, 2027.
Cross 1,000 square feet and the code starts scoring
Ordinance 5665 is codified and CEC-approved for the 2025 code — approved 1/21/2026, carried at PAMC Chapter 16.17 through Supplement No. 82. An emergency ordinance introduced September 8, 2025, it records the reason in Finding E: AB 130 limits local amendment authority from October 1, 2025 to June 1, 2031, and the Council wanted in first. Section 7 then sets the clock: the chapter applies 180 days after publication of the 2025 Energy Code, and until then the 2022 code as amended by Ordinance 5627 stays in effect — in the same ordinance that declares 5627 suspended and expressly repealed.
The trigger is two numbers: a single-family building originally permitted before 2011, with additions or alterations exceeding 1,000 square feet, counted by the footprint of altered elements. That is a Covered Single Family Project, taking measures off Table 150.0-J to reach the Target Score in Table 150.0-I — 12 in Climate Zone 4, the same 12 for every vintage. The menu leans on fuel substitution: a heat pump water heater replacing gas scores 12 by itself, heat pump space conditioning 21, PV 17, while R-49 attic insulation is worth 7 on a pre-1978 house and 1 on a 1992–2010 one. Eleven exceptions exist, including a 20-percent-of-valuation hardship off-ramp and a performance path whose Certificate of Compliance needs a Certified Energy Analyst’s signature. Detached ADUs sit outside it on mandatory measures only. The second fuse: PAMC 16.17.140 applies to permit applications submitted on or after January 1, 2027, when an AC change-out starts owing a heat pump or the efficiency package.
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.
Palo Alto plan-check questions
If yours isn’t here, see the full FAQ or call and ask.
How many FlexPath points does a Palo Alto remodel need?
Which Palo Alto submittal file does the energy report go in?
Does my ADU or addition actually need one?
Almost certainly. New conditioned floor area — ADUs, JADUs, garage conversions, additions — triggers Title 24. So do alterations that touch the envelope, the ductwork, or the HVAC equipment, including a straight change-out. A remodel that only moves non-structural interior partitions usually doesn’t.
Send it either way. If it doesn’t need a report I’ll say so and there’s no charge for the look.
Plan check came back with an energy comment. Now what?
Forward it to me. If it’s a job I did, the first two revisions are free and I answer the comment directly — you don’t have to translate between your plan checker and me.
If someone else did the original report, I’ll still take it. Send the comment and the existing CF1R and you’ll get a flat quote back the same day.
Send your Palo Alto plans.
The CF1R comes back ready to drop into the PLAN file, with the measures lined up against Table 150.0-J and the verification written as an addendum to the Certificate of Compliance, the way section 10-103 and the ordinance ask for it.