Do I need Title 24 to replace kitchen cabinets and counters?

Not if the lighting, range hood, windows and walls stay as they are. Cabinets, counters, flooring and appliances are not components the alteration rules reach.

Do kitchen lights have to be on a dimmer?

Yes, under §150.0(k)2F, unless the circuit controls less than 20 watts or the lights are on an occupancy or vacancy sensor. Lighting built into a range hood is excepted.

Can I fit a recirculating range hood?

Not where the kitchen exhaust requirement applies, because it calls for air exhausted outdoors. In an existing home with no earlier permit requiring kitchen exhaust, §150.2(b)1Mii does not impose §150.0(o)1G on a replacement.

Does a Kitchen Remodel Need Title 24?

Q: Can I keep my old recessed cans?

Yes. Existing screw-base sockets in ceiling recessed luminaires may stay if new JA8-compliant trim kits or lamps designed for recessed downlights are fitted. A replacement can must not have a screw base.

Only for what the Energy Code regulates, and most kitchen remodels touch something: new or altered lighting must meet §150.0(k) under §150.2(b)1K, and a replaced range hood falls under the kitchen exhaust rules of §150.0(o). A remodel that keeps the existing lighting, hood, windows and walls needs no energy forms.

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Judged on what changes

A kitchen remodel that adds no floor area is an alteration, and §150.2(b) reaches only the components it alters and the equipment newly installed to serve them. New cabinets, counters, flooring, sinks and appliances are not among them. Nor is lighting you keep: the compliance manual says existing luminaires, controls and lighting systems that are not altered may stay as they are.

One thing a kitchen remodel does not bring is electric-ready wiring. A new home with a gas cooktop needs a 240-volt circuit beside it under §150.0(u), but that rule, like the furnace and dryer circuits, applies to new construction, not to alterations such as a kitchen remodel. The general rule for remodels is on does a remodel need Title 24.

New light fittings

Section 150.2(b)1K applies §150.0(k) to the altered lighting. For a kitchen that means:

every new luminaire and light source certified and marked to Joint Appendix JA8, under-cabinet tape lights included; lighting built into a range hood is exempt, as is lighting of at least 45 lumens per watt inside drawers and cabinets
a new recessed downlight with no screw-base socket, labelled airtight at less than 2.0 cfm of leakage at 75 pascals, sealed to the ceiling with a gasket or caulk, and installed to the California Electrical Code clearances
lamps in recessed or enclosed fittings that pass JA8’s elevated temperature test, marked JA8-2025-E under the 2025 appendix

Old cans get a concession. Existing screw-base sockets in ceiling recessed luminaires need not be removed, provided new JA8-compliant trim kits or lamps designed for recessed downlights go in. Replace the can itself and the new one may not have a screw base. There is no wattage limit in a home; the test is efficacy, which incandescent and halogen sources may not pass. Product detail is on JA8 lighting.

Switches, dimmers and cabinets

A kitchen is habitable space, so §150.0(k)2F applies: the lighting needs readily accessible wall-mounted dimming controls, and a forward phase-cut dimmer controlling LEDs must meet NEMA SSL 7A. A circuit with less than 20 watts of controlled lighting, or lighting on an occupancy or vacancy sensor, is excepted. Under-cabinet, under-shelf and display-cabinet lighting, and switched outlets, are controlled separately from the ceiling lighting so one can be on without the other. Lit drawers and cabinets with opaque fronts switch off when closed.

The range hood

Section 150.0(o)1G requires local exhaust in every kitchen, demand-controlled where the kitchen is not enclosed. A vented range hood meets a capture efficiency or an airflow from Table 150.0-G, set by the home’s floor area and the range fuel. Over 1,500 square feet, a hood over an electric range needs 50 per cent capture efficiency or 110 cfm, and over a gas range 70 per cent or 180 cfm. Below 1,000 square feet, a hood over a gas range needs 85 per cent or 280 cfm. Other kitchen fans, downdraft included, need 300 cfm. The compliance manual rules out recirculating hoods, which do not exhaust outdoors.

Replacing an existing hood follows §150.2(b)1Mii. If an earlier permit required the home to meet §150.0(o)1G, the new hood meets its airflow or capture efficiency. If an earlier permit required only a vented hood or fan, the replacement matches that permit’s airflow or 100 cfm, whichever is greater. If neither applies, §150.0(o)1G does not. Any new fan must be rated for airflow and sound.

Which forms apply

Lighting is documented by whoever installs it, on the Certificate of Installation CF2R-LTG-01-E. The compliance manual requires one for any regulated residential lighting project, even a single luminaire, and lighting needs no ECC verification. A Certificate of Compliance comes in when the kitchen work also changes the envelope, the heating and cooling or the water heating, such as a new or enlarged window, covered on do new windows need Title 24. A prescriptive alteration uses CF1R-ALT-01-E, or CF1R-ALT-05-E where nothing needs field verification. The building department decides what it wants with the permit application.