Who Can Perform Title 24 Acceptance Testing?

A certified Acceptance Test Technician, trained and certified through a certification provider approved by the Energy Commission. The installing contractor cannot simply self-certify the result.

The certification chain

The Energy Commission approves Acceptance Test Technician Certification Providers. Those providers train, certify and oversee the technicians and their employers. A technician certified by an approved provider is an Acceptance Test Technician, and it is that person who performs the test and completes the NRCA form.

Two certifications, not one

This is the part that trips projects up. There are separate certifications for lighting controls and for mechanical systems, through different providers, and holding one does not authorise work under the other. A project with both new lighting controls and a new rooftop unit needs both certifications represented — which in practice often means two different people.

How the form tells you which is required

The suffix on the form name. -A means a certified acceptance test technician must perform the test. -F means a field technician may. So NRCA-MCH-02-A requires a certified technician, and reading the suffix is the quickest way to know whether you need to engage one before the work is scheduled.

The watermark

Mechanical NRCA forms must carry the watermark logo of a certified Mechanical ATTCP provider, and lighting forms are completed through an approved provider's database. Both mechanisms exist for the same reason: they make a genuine certificate distinguishable from a blank form somebody filled in, which is what a plan checker is looking for.

Why it cannot be the installer alone

The installer already declares what was installed, on the certificate of installation. The acceptance test is a separate, independent confirmation that the installed system performs. Collapsing the two would remove the only step that tests behaviour rather than description.