CF1R Prescriptive vs Performance Report: What Is the Difference?
A prescriptive CF1R records a checklist: each requirement is met or the design does not comply. The performance version, CF1R-PRF-01-E, prints a model: a standard design, your proposed design, a compliance margin, and lists of special features and ECC-verified features that become conditions of the approval.
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What a prescriptive certificate shows
Chapter 2 of the 2025 compliance manual lists six prescriptive versions: NCB-01 for new buildings, ADD-01 and ADD-02 for additions, ALT-01, ALT-02 and ALT-05 for alterations. They name the minimum specifications chosen for compliance and the heating and cooling load results. Nothing is modeled, so the outcome is pass or fail per requirement. In the manual's words, every applicable prescriptive requirement must be met, otherwise the performance approach is the route. The permit package may add worksheets such as CF1R-ENV-02-E and ENV-03-E.
What the performance report adds
The software output carries a compliance statement near the top. In a registered 2025 PRF-01-E for a Laguna Niguel ADU, a summary table compares the standard design with the proposed design on long-term system cost and source energy, then prints a compliance margin for each orientation and a result line reading Complies. A footnote says the cost figure is a 30-year present value to the energy system, not a predicted utility bill. The same report states that a peak-cooling target of 120 percent of the standard design applies. Additions and alterations are judged on long-term system cost alone.
Features that become conditions
PRF-01-E carries two feature summaries. Required special features are "features that must be installed as condition for meeting the modeled energy performance", and the manual says that if one is not installed the building would not comply. The ECC feature summary lists items an ECC-Rater (formerly the HERS rater) must verify, with registered CF2Rs and CF3Rs. Credit taken in a model therefore turns into an installed requirement. Mandatory measures apply on both routes, and the manual warns that software may not check them.
Which one suits the job
Where the prescriptive version fails on one item, other alterations can exceed their requirements to carry the project through performance. Walk through the choice on prescriptive vs performance, then read how to read a CF1R. See ECC measures and mandatory measures for the two lists, the CF1R page for the family, and our residential service for either report.
Common Title 24 Questions
- What is a CF1R certificate of compliance?
- What is a CF2R certificate of installation?
- What is a CF3R certificate of verification?
- What is an NRCC form?
- What is an NRCA certificate of acceptance?
- What is an LMCC form?
Frequently Asked Questions
The manual ties the compliance margin to the modeled report, where deviations from prescriptive values show up in it. A prescriptive certificate has no model.
New buildings can use the prescriptive CF1R-NCB-01-E or the performance CF1R-PRF-01-E, depending on the route chosen.
Explore CF1R: Certificate of Compliance
- What Is a CF1R Certificate of Compliance?
- How to Read ECC Measures on a CF1R
- How to Read the Mandatory Measures on a CF1R
- How to Read Your CF1R, Page by Page
- What Is the CF1R for a House?
View all CF1R: Certificate of Compliance guides → · Forms and Certificates · Title 24 guide