Does a Remodel Need Title 24?
It depends what the remodel touches. Work on the envelope, windows, insulation or mechanical systems is regulated as an alteration. Purely cosmetic work is not.
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Alterations are judged on what changes
A remodel that adds no floor area is an alteration, and alterations are not measured against a whole-house target. Only the altered components have to comply. That is a much lighter test than new construction, and it is why a large remodel can sometimes need less documentation than a small addition.
The parts that pull a remodel in
Fenestration is the usual one: new or enlarged windows and doors are regulated whether or not anything else changes. Opening up walls or ceilings and re-insulating is regulated. Replacing a furnace, air conditioner, heat pump or water heater is regulated, and on a ducted system that can bring duct sealing and testing with it. Converting an unheated space — a porch, an attic, a garage — into living space is not an alteration at all: it is newly conditioned space and falls under the addition provisions instead.
Where the line usually falls in practice
A kitchen or bathroom remodel that keeps the existing openings, exterior walls and equipment typically stays outside the Energy Code. The same remodel that enlarges a window, reworks the ducting, or replaces the water heater does not.
Because it turns on specifics, the reliable move is to check the drawn scope before the permit application rather than after a plan checker asks for the forms. Where a remodel does need documentation, it is normally a prescriptive alterations set rather than a full performance model, which is faster and cheaper to produce.