What Is the CF1R for an ADU?
The CF1R is the Certificate of Compliance — the document that shows the ADU design meets the Energy Code. When a building department asks for "your Title 24", this is normally what it means.
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What is on it
A CF1R records the design the compliance claim rests on: the conditioned floor area and geometry, the wall, roof and floor assemblies with their insulation, the glazing schedule with performance values and orientation, and the heating, cooling, ventilation and water-heating equipment. It then shows the design complies — either by meeting each prescriptive requirement, or by demonstrating through modelling that the building performs at least as well as a reference design of the same size and shape.
It is produced in software the Energy Commission has approved for the current code cycle, and the documentation author signs it. That signature is a certification about the design, which is why the CF1R has to describe the building that is actually going to be built rather than an earlier version of it.
How it differs from the CF2R and the CF3R
The three cover different stages. The CF1R is the design-stage certificate. The CF2R is the Certificate of Installation, completed during construction by the contractors who install the regulated features — windows, ducts, HVAC equipment, ventilation, insulation and the measures affecting envelope tightness. The CF3R is the Certificate of Verification, completed by a third-party rater who tests and field-verifies the work.
Why the CF1R comes back at plan check
Almost always because it and the drawings have stopped agreeing. A window changed size, a heat pump was swapped for a different model, an assembly was revised. The certificate still describes the earlier design, so the two documents in the submittal contradict each other. Reissuing the CF1R against the current drawings resolves it, which is why an ADU report includes revisions rather than treating them as a new job.