Welcome to the California Energy Commission

Title 24 Special Case Topics

Compliance Options

Public Resources Code, Section 25402.1 (b) requires the California Energy Commission to establish a formal process for certification of compliance options of new products, materials, and calculation methods that can improve building efficiency levels set by the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The Energy Commission encourages the use of energy saving techniques and designs for showing compliance with the Standards that are approved by the Commission through the Compliances Options approval process. Compliance options can affect the Standards in several ways but can generally be viewed as:

  1. Those that affect a change in compliance through a change in the scope of the requirements, and
  2. Those that affect a change in compliance through enhancement of the current compliance process.

Liquid Line Temperature Charge Method-HERS verification for refrigerant charge of split system air conditioners and heat pumps


Residential Refrigerant Charge Testing and Related Issues. (PDF file, 61 pages, 2 mb)

Altherma Air-To-Water Source Heat Pump


2008 Standards: Approved Compliance Information


November 30, 2011
Staff Webinar on Draft Evaluation Report of Compliance Option for Altherma Air-To-Water Source Heat Pump

Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance-Open Cell, Low-Density Spray Polyurethane Foam (ocSPF) Insulation


2008 Standards: Approved Compliance Information


July 25, 2011
Staff Workshop on Draft Evaluation Report of Compliance Option for Open Cell Spray Polyurethane Foam Insulation

Products and Appliances Listings

The Special Case Products and Appliances Listings provide performance rating information for manufacturer appliance products, system components, or other regulated energy efficiency items that receive a waiver from reporting, or for various other reasons are not included in the Energy Commission's Title 20 Appliance Efficiency Database. These listings are organized into the following categories for the 2008 Building Energy Efficiency Standards:

  • Department of Energy Interim or Permanent Waiver
  • Compliance Option
  • Section 112 Approved Appliances
  • Manufacturer Supplemental Listings

An explanation of each of the listings and links to the data for the various appliances or components in each of these listings follows.

U.S. Department Of Energy Interim or Permanent Waiver

This listing includes appliances which have received an interim or permanent waiver from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), exempting the appliance from meeting minimal federal efficiency requirements. These waivers are given to appliances that have a design or function that cannot be measured using existing testing procedures. DOE's exemption would result in the appliance not being marketable in California based on the current Appliance Efficiency Regulations.

This listing will permit the installation of appliances using new technologies to be installed in California, allowing the opportunity for the Energy Commission to evaluate the relative merits of each appliance. For the purposes of compliance with the Building Energy Efficiency Standards, all equipment on this list is assigned the minimal efficiency value defined by regulations of the closest associated appliance.

Appliances placed in this DOE waiver list will be removed when one of the following situations exist:

  • The appliance is tested and rated under a test procedure recognized by the Energy Commission. In this case the appliance would be added to the Appliance Efficiency Database.
  • A compliance option is approved by the Energy Commission which incorporates the appliance's performance. For this situation the appliance would be required to be listed as part of the compliance option database.
  • Data is provided to the Energy Commission which demonstrates that the appliance does not meet the minimal efficiency requirement used as the reference in this database.

Compliance Options

The Building Energy Efficiency Standards allow for the development of new calculation approaches for new design, materials, and equipment that cannot be adequately modeled using currently approved tools. This option is described in Section 10-109 of the Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The process developed to allow this is called a Compliance Option. Any appliances associated with a Compliance Option that require specific inputs (values other than those listed in the Appliance Efficiency Regulations or Section 112 of the Building Energy Efficiency Standards) are included in this listing.

Listed Equipment

Section 112 Approved Appliances

The Building Energy Efficiency Standards Section 112 includes minimal appliance efficiency requirements for space-conditioning equipment beyond those defined in the Appliance Efficiency Regulations. In many cases the actual efficiency of specific appliances may not be current or reported. This listing includes those appliances that need verification of their compliance with the minimal efficiency requirements listed in Section 112.

Listed Equipment

Manufacturer Supplemental Listings

The Manufacturer Supplemental Listings provide performance rating information for manufacturer appliance products, system components, or other regulated energy efficiency items that are not included in the Energy Commission's Title 20 Appliance Efficiency Database. These appliances, components, or regulated items have efficiency, non-energy related performance, or other special characteristics that must be reported to the Energy Commission to allow those items to be modeled or documented when used as a feature for compliance with the Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards.

Appliances or technologies that receive approval for use as Compliance Options after the effective date of the Building Energy Efficiency Standards are subsequently integrated into the next update of the Standards and Alternative Calculation Method manuals, but those appliances or technologies may not be incorporated into the T20 Appliance Efficiency Database, thus may remain in these Manufacturer Supplemental Listings.