Can the hotline tell me whether my project passes plan check?

It can explain what a provision means. The building department decides how the code applies to your drawings, and written advice from the Executive Director is not binding on any person.

Is Energy Code Ace run by the Energy Commission?

No. It is run by the California Statewide Codes and Standards Program, funded by utility customers under the Public Utilities Commission and vetted by the Energy Commission. Quote the Commission’s published text when the exact wording matters.

Why does this page print no phone number?

The Energy Commission lists different out-of-state numbers in its 2025 manual and on its current Support Center page, so the live page is the safer source.

Title 24 Hotline: Who to Ask About an Energy Code Question

The California Energy Commission runs an Energy Code Hotline for questions the Standards and the compliance manuals do not settle. You reach it through an online form or a toll-free line, and the Commission’s Energy Code Support Center page lists the current options. For tools, fact sheets and training, the separate Energy Code Ace program is the place to start.

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What the hotline answers

The 2025 single-family compliance manual says that when the Energy Code or the manual cannot answer a specific question about compliance or enforcement, technical assistance is available from the hotline. Its online form sorts questions by topic, among them compliance forms, compliance software, climate zones, local ordinances and reach codes, field verification and acceptance testing, and Title 20 appliance rules. It asks for the Energy Code section and the code cycle, so find both before you write.

How to reach it

Use the Energy Code Hotline Submission Form, or the toll-free number on the Energy Commission’s Energy Code Support Center page. We print no number here because the Commission’s own documents disagree: the 2025 manual and the current Support Center page give different numbers for callers outside California. Take the number from the live page.

What an answer is worth

Hotline staff explain the code. They do not approve a permit, and your building department does that, as who enforces Title 24 explains. Part 1, Section 10-107(b) lets the Executive Director give written advice on the meaning of a provision when asked, and says the advice is not binding on any person. Section 10-107(a) provides for a written determination that does bind the parties, but only after a dispute with the enforcement agency has been heard by the local board of permit appeals. For a question that holds up a permit, put it to the department as well and keep its reply in writing.

Energy Code Ace

Energy Code Ace is a separate program. It describes itself as powered by the California Statewide Codes and Standards Program and vetted by the Energy Commission, and the Reference Appendices say that program is funded by California utility customers under the Public Utilities Commission. It calls its tools, training and resources no-cost: Reference Ace for reading the standards, Forms Ace, a Virtual Compliance Assistant, fact sheets, checklists and training. Its Q&Ace service returns a response from one of its Aces and covers earlier code editions as well as 2025. The Commission’s Support Center page says NRCC and LMCC forms can be completed online through Ace.

Which door to use

What a section means: Q&Ace or the hotline.
Whether your drawings pass: your building department.
A local ordinance stricter than the state code: the hotline lists these under reach codes, and what a reach code is explains them.
Where the code text itself lives: the Title 24 code PDF.
Which software to run: the compliance software page.

Common Title 24 Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Explore 2025 Energy Code and 2026 Permits

View all 2025 Energy Code and 2026 Permits guides → · Title 24 Guide · Title 24 guide