How to Prepare for an ECC-Rater Visit

The result of an ECC-Rater's visit is mostly decided before the rater arrives. This is the site-side preparation, drawn from Appendices RA2 and RA3 of the 2025 Reference Appendices; What is an ECC-Rater? explains the role itself.

Read the list before anyone is booked

The CF1R states what must be verified (how to read your CF1R shows where). With central air, a new home always lists duct sealing, airflow, fan watt draw and its ventilation fans; the prescriptive package or design credits can add QII, a verified SEER2 rating or a blower door test. On an existing home, swapping an air handler, outdoor unit or coil pulls in the ducts, as duct leakage testing explains.

The order the paperwork must follow

1. CF1R registered with an ECC-Provider data registry and approved with the permit. The builder gives the rater a copy, plus the names and licence numbers of the subcontractors whose work will be tested.
2. Rater booked before installation, so testing can finish without delaying final approval. On an alteration the owner, or the owner's agent, may take the builder's place.
3. Installer tests first. Each contractor runs the same diagnostics on their own work, registers the CF2R in that registry and posts a copy on site.
4. Rater checks the registry, then tests. No CF3R may be submitted for a home without a completed CF2R, and the CF3R goes into the same registry as the earlier documents.

The building department may want testing timed with one of its own inspections, or may send someone to watch. Alterations are always tested individually; sampling across groups of homes is for new construction.

Getting each test ready

• Duct leakage. The duct system is pressurised to 25 pascals through one opening with every other register and grille covered, so the air handler, plenums, boots and registers must all be installed and sealed, with each register left reachable. Cloth-backed rubber adhesive duct tape is not allowed anywhere. Where the installer tested at rough-in, the gaps between register boots and drywall must still be sealed once the board is up.
• Airflow and fan watt draw. Airflow is measured by plenum pressure matching with a fan flowmeter, by a flow grid or with a flow capture hood, while a portable watt meter or the utility meter records the fan's draw. The supply plenum needs the labelled hole for a static pressure probe, or a permanent probe, downstream of the coil. Section 150.0(m)13 sets at least 350 cfm per ton through the return grilles in every control mode, with fan efficacy no worse than 0.45 W/cfm for a gas furnace air handler or 0.58 W/cfm otherwise.
• Filters. MERV 13 or the AHRI 680 equivalent, labelled by the manufacturer, gasketed so air cannot bypass, reachable by the owner, with a permanent label at the filter slot stating design airflow and maximum clean-filter pressure drop (Section 150.0(m)12).
• Refrigerant charge. The standard check, by superheat for fixed metering devices or subcooling for expansion valves, needs 55°F or warmer outdoors. In cold weather the installer charges by weight; the department may approve the house on a registered CF2R carrying the installer's signed promise to come back, the homeowner is told the charge is unverified, and the rater checks it when the weather allows. Systems the standard method cannot test, which the code says can include mini-splits, need the rater on site to observe the weigh-in; both the calculated and the actual total refrigerant weights are written on or near the nameplate. More in refrigerant charge verification.
• Ventilation and range hood. The whole-house fan is measured at its set airflow, so it must be wired and running. The vented range hood is checked by make and model against the HVI or AHAM directory for airflow or capture efficiency and sone rating; an unlisted hood fails, so leave its label visible.
• QII. The air barrier, and the insulation behind tubs and showers, are inspected at framing rough-in; wall, floor and ceiling insulation before drywall; the attic sometimes on a later visit. See quality insulation installation.
• Blower door. Where the CF1R claims reduced envelope leakage, the house is prepared and tested to the RESNET 380 procedure that Appendix RA3.8 adopts, so book it once the enclosure is complete.

When a test fails

A fail is entered in the registry even when the installer fixes it on the spot, and any printout of a failed record carries a FAIL watermark. The work is corrected, the rater retests, and only then is a passing CF3R registered; final inspection waits for it. Sample groups raise the stakes. After the first home of each model is tested in full, the builder groups the rest, up to seven in a closed group or five in an open one, and the rater picks the sample unprompted. A failure triggers a resample, a second failure means testing every untested home, and the builder must offer free testing and correction to owners already living there. Weigh-in charging rules out sampling altogether.

The week before

1. CF1R approved; a copy and the subcontractor list with the rater.
2. Every CF2R registered in the same registry, copies posted.
3. Equipment commissioned and controllable in every mode.
4. Registers, filter slots, the probe hole and the hood label reachable.
5. For QII, cavities still open.
6. Someone on site who can fix a problem the same day.

The ECC-Rater, called a HERS rater until the role was renamed on 1 January 2026, is hired by the builder or owner and must be independent of both the builder and the installer being tested.

More Title 24 Guides

1. What Every California Homeowner Should Know About Title 24
2. 12 Things to Know Before Ordering a Title 24 Report
3. Title 24 Checklist: What to Have Ready Before You Order
4. How to Read Your CF1R, Page by Page
5. 15 Title 24 Mistakes That Trigger Plan Check Corrections
6. How to Choose a Title 24 Consultant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the ECC-Rater test before the installer has registered the CF2R?

What happens if it is too cold to verify the refrigerant charge?

Does the CF3R have to be in the same registry as the CF1R?

Can an HVAC replacement in my house be sampled with other homes?