Title 24 Reports in Tehama County

Two flanks, one mountain zone

West of the valley the county rises into the Coast Range foothills at Paskenta, Flournoy and Rancho Tehama Reserve — and stays zone 11. East of it, Highway 36 climbs from Red Bluff toward Lassen and the zone changes on the way. All three of the county's zone 16 ZIP codes, 96061, 96063 and 96075, are on that eastern side.

The one zone 16 ZIP that touches the west, 96076, reaches the county's western edge from Trinity County and is split three ways; Tehama holds only about a third of it, behind Trinity, so it is not counted here. On the ZIPs the county does hold, the west is zone 11 throughout.

From the valley floor to Mineral

Red Bluff sits at about 300 feet by USGS data, and the valley around it is zone 11 — Corning, Gerber, Los Molinos and Vina included. The Department of Finance's 2026 estimates count three incorporated cities here — Red Bluff, Corning and Tehama — all on the valley floor in zone 11. None reaches the zone 16 side, so every zone 16 address in Tehama is a county permit. Mineral, on Highway 36 toward Lassen, sits at about 6,600 feet in zone 16.

The split at Paynes Creek

Paynes Creek, on the same highway, is where the line shows in the data: the Census puts 55 per cent of its land in Red Bluff's 96080, zone 11, and 45 per cent in 96075, zone 16. Manton, further north, is zone 11 at about 2,500 feet.

Valley summers, mountain winters

The northern Sacramento Valley is hot in summer and cool in winter, so a zone 11 report balances both loads. Zone 16 is heating-led and the coldest assignment in the state. In Tehama the two are separated by a single highway climb, and a design that works in Red Bluff is not a design for Mineral.

Every ZIP code by zone

Zones per the Energy Commission; county membership and community names per the 2020 Census.

• Climate zone 11 — 96021 (Corning, Rancho Tehama Reserve, Richfield); 96029 (Flournoy); 96035 (Proberta, Gerber, Las Flores); 96055 (Los Molinos); 96074 (Paskenta); 96078; 96080 (Red Bluff, Bend, Paynes Creek, Dales); 96090 (Tehama); 96092 (Vina); also 96059, 96022, split with a neighbouring county (below)
• Climate zone 16 — 96061 (Mineral); 96063 (Mineral); 96075 (Paynes Creek)

ZIP codes that cross the county line

• 96059 (Manton) — about 52% within Tehama County, the remainder in Shasta 48%
• 96022 (Lake California) — about 69% within Tehama County, the remainder in Shasta 31%

Both run north into Shasta County: 96059, around Manton, almost evenly, and 96022, around Lake California, by about a third. Both are zone 11, so a Shasta-side address changes permitting authority, not targets.

Finding the zone for your own project

The zone is set by the project's location and confirmed from the ZIP code against the Energy Commission's published table — not from the county name and not from the nearest large town. Because Tehama County contains more than one zone, that check decides which set of numbers a report is written against.

Give us the project address and we determine the zone as part of preparing the report. It is the first thing established, because every insulation, glazing and equipment figure downstream depends on it.

Climate zones in Tehama County

Tehama County contains California climate zones 11 and 16. The zone drives the insulation, glazing and equipment performance a report has to demonstrate, and it is confirmed from the project ZIP code against the Energy Commission's published table.