Who Can Prepare a Title 24 Report?
There is no state licence requirement to prepare Title 24 compliance documentation. The recognised professional credential is the Certified Energy Analyst (CEA), administered by CABEC and recognised by the California Energy Commission.
The legal position, stated plainly
California does not license Title 24 documentation authors. Anyone may prepare compliance documents, and the building department's test is whether the submittal is correct and complete — not who produced it.
That surprises people, and it is worth being straight about rather than implying a requirement that does not exist. What the absence of a licence means in practice is that the quality range among providers is wide, and the burden of judging that falls on the customer.
What a CEA actually is
The Certified Energy Analyst credential is administered by CABEC, the California Association of Building Energy Consultants, which is recognised by the Energy Commission for this purpose. It is not a weekend course. It requires:
- a two-part examination — multiple choice, plus a practical ACM modelling component
- verified experience, education and/or related Title 24 certifications
- completion of the Professional Practices Workshop
- at least nine hours of continuing education annually
The modelling component is the part that distinguishes it. Answering questions about the code is one skill; building a compliant model that behaves correctly is another, and the certification tests both.
Where it stops being optional
Although the code does not require a CEA, many energy efficiency programmes do — some require an active certification for participation and others recommend it. A project intending to claim a utility incentive or enter a programme may find the credential is a condition of the money, even though it was never a condition of the permit.
The stated goal of the programme is that Title 24 Part 6 analysis and documentation be authored by a CEA, so the direction of travel is toward it rather than away.
The continuing education requirement is the real signal
Nine hours a year exists because the code changes on a three-year cycle and the compliance software changes with it. Someone who qualified two cycles ago and has not kept up is working from a superseded rulebook — which is a more useful thing to ask about than how long a provider has been trading.
What to ask, whoever you use
Which code cycle they are working to, which approved software they use, whether they will handle plan check comments if any come back, and whether registration with a data registry is included where the project needs it. Those four answers tell you more than a credential alone — and a good provider will answer all four without hesitating.