What Happens If You Fail the HERS (Now ECC) Test?
The failure is recorded, the contractor corrects the work, and the same ECC-Rater, called a HERS rater until 2026, retests it. Only a passing result produces a registered CF3R, and the building department cannot approve the work without one. You cannot simply call a different rater and start again.
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What gets recorded
A failed verification is entered in the ECC-Provider’s registry, and the registry may not let anyone print the CF3R for it unless it carries a FAIL watermark. A test the installer runs on his own work first is different: the CF2R is registered only once that testing confirms compliance, so the installer fixes and retests before the rater arrives.
Who fixes it and who retests
The builder or installer corrects the work, and the rater retests until it passes. The rater who registered the failure becomes the rater of record for that test, and only that rater, or a full-time employee of the same company, may register the passing retest. The provider can release the project to another rater only if the rater agrees, cannot or will not continue, or is suspended or decertified, and it must confirm the retest by site visit, photographs or desk audit. Meanwhile it locks the project, and no other registry may accept it while a failure is open (Section 10-103.3(b)1Aviii).
When the standard route is closed
For altered existing ducts that cannot reach 10 per cent leakage, or 7 per cent to outside, Section 150.2(b)1E allows another route: seal every accessible leak, then pass the ECC-Rater’s visual inspection and smoke test. Ducts extended for an addition have the same route, and altered garage ducts must reach 6 per cent or use it. A new duct system has no such route; see duct leakage testing. Below 55°F, a building department may approve on a registered CF2R carrying the installer’s signed promise to return, and the rater verifies the charge once it is 55°F or warmer, as refrigerant charge verification describes.
What the building department waits for
For an alteration it cannot approve the work until it holds a completed CF2R and a completed CF3R. For a house, final inspection is not complete until the registered certificates are posted or viewable on the registry.
If you think the test was wrong
The provider must investigate complaints, and a test found flawed must be remedied with an additional test for the party that hired the rater. Under a notice of violation the rater bears the owner’s costs for the original test and for any retest the violation makes necessary. See rater independence and preparing for the ECC-Rater.
Common Title 24 Questions
- When is Title 24 required for a home?
- Does a remodel need Title 24?
- Does a room addition need Title 24?
- What plans are needed for a residential Title 24 report?
- How much does a residential Title 24 report cost?
- How long does a residential Title 24 report take?
Frequently Asked Questions
Not freely. Once a rater has registered a failure, only that rater of record can register the pass unless the provider releases the project on one of the grounds in Section 10-103.3(b)1Aviii.
Yes, if the rater registered it: the failure must be entered in the registry, and in sample testing the Appendices say so even when the installer corrects it immediately. The installer's own test is registered on the CF2R only once it confirms compliance, so fixing before the rater arrives avoids a rater-registered failure.
The builder or installer must correct the work. The Standards and appendices set no price or payer for an ordinary retest, so agree it in the contract before testing.
Explore ECC-Raters
- How to Find an ECC-Rater (Formerly a HERS Rater)
- Can My HVAC Contractor Do the HERS (Now ECC) Test Himself?
- How Much Does HERS Testing (Now ECC Verification) Cost?
- What Is an ECC-Rater?
- Which Jobs Need HERS Testing (Now ECC Verification)?
View all ECC-Raters guides → · CHEERS and ECC · Title 24 guide