Title 24 Reports in San Francisco
Title 24 requirements in San Francisco are the state's 2025 Energy Code, applied in climate zone 3 across the whole city, plus local rules the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) enforces alongside it, chief among them that new buildings must be all-electric. Most projects here are alterations to existing buildings, so the alterations path is where the energy work usually happens.
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One city, one county, one climate zone
Being a consolidated city and county removes a question that arises nearly everywhere else in the state. There is no unincorporated territory inside San Francisco and no second building department with its own process, so every project in the city answers to the same authority.
The zone is just as settled: all 28 ZIP codes in the city are zone 3, and so are Daly City, Brisbane, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Pacifica, Oakland and Berkeley. Zone 3 is the third largest of the sixteen at 276 ZIP codes, running down the peninsula and around the bay shore. Unlike a San Jose project, a San Francisco one shares its zone with most of its neighbours.
Where the zone breaks is north
Across the Golden Gate it holds through Sausalito, Mill Valley, Tiburon and Corte Madera — and then stops. Larkspur, immediately next to Corte Madera, is zone 2, as are San Rafael, Fairfax and Novato. Two adjacent Marin towns on opposite sides of the assignment is about as tight as the boundary gets anywhere in California, and it is why a practice working both sides of the bridge cannot carry one set of figures across.
Alterations rather than new construction
San Francisco is effectively built out, so most residential work is a change to an existing building: a vertical addition, a rear extension, a garage or ground-floor conversion, or a full envelope remodel of a Victorian or Edwardian flat. Title 24 handles that through the additions and alterations path, where the changed area and the affected systems demonstrate compliance rather than the entire building. Replacing windows in an existing façade, installing new heating, or bringing an unconditioned ground floor into use can each require documentation without any addition at all.
What San Francisco adds to the state code
The energy rules themselves are the state's. San Francisco does not appear on the Energy Commission's list of local ordinances exceeding the 2025 Energy Code, and DBI's green building forms simply call for compliance with Title 24 Part 6 (2025). What the City adds sits in its own Building and Green Building Codes. The all-electric rules below were adopted on findings about local fire, seismic and air-quality conditions and forwarded to the Building Standards Commission.
The main addition is fuel. Section 106A.1.17 of the San Francisco Building Code bars permits for new mixed-fuel buildings whose first permit application was made on or after 1 June 2021, so new buildings, freestanding ADUs included, have to be all-electric. After the Ninth Circuit's ruling in the Berkeley gas case, a 2024 amendment lets new construction install gas infrastructure for appliances covered by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, provided it meets DBI's electric-ready design guidelines. A 2025 ordinance extended the requirement to major renovations, as Section 202 of the Building Code defines them, for permits filed on or after 1 July 2026, with exceptions for physical or technical infeasibility, commercial food establishments, conversions from nonresidential to residential use, recently replaced major systems and 100 per cent affordable housing. Administrative Bulletin 112 sets out the details.
None of this changes how a Title 24 report is calculated, but it settles some of the inputs. An all-electric house is in step with the 2025 Energy Code, whose baseline for new homes already uses heat pumps for space and water heating.
Permitting through the Department of Building Inspection
Permits are issued by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, acting as both the city and the county authority, and the compliance forms are read against the architectural drawings as part of the same review.
The energy documents travel with a second piece of City paperwork: a Green Building Submittal form on the plans, required under DBI's Administrative Bulletin 093. The current forms cover permit applications from January 2026 to December 2028, and GS5 is the one for residential alterations, additions and ADUs. A project adding 1,000 square feet or more of conditioned floor area needs a Green Building Compliance Professional of Record; smaller ones are signed by the applicant or designer, and a final compliance verification form is due before the certificate of completion.
The forms carry two San Francisco rules a Title 24 report sits next to. For new one- and two-unit homes with off-street parking, each space gets a dedicated EV circuit of at least 40 amperes at 208/240 volts, ending in a receptacle or a Level 2 charger, where the state minimum is a raceway and panel capacity for one. And under the Better Roofs provisions of the San Francisco Green Building Code, where the City's stormwater requirements apply, each square foot of living roof counted toward them may reduce the Solar Access Roof Area used for the solar requirement by a square foot.
Common Title 24 Questions in San Francisco
- Is all of San Francisco in climate zone 3?
- Does a San Francisco remodel need a full Title 24 report?
- How does the additions and alterations path work on a Victorian flat?
- Does converting a garage or ground floor need an energy report?
- What does the Department of Building Inspection review in the energy set?
- Is there a separate county requirement in San Francisco?
- Does a Marin or peninsula project use the same climate zone?
- Do San Francisco tenant improvements need the nonresidential forms?
San Francisco projects fall in California climate zone 3. The zone drives the envelope and equipment requirements a report has to meet, and a single city can span more than one, so it is confirmed per address.