Transparent pricing

CHEERS has worked to keep project costs low to help support the HERS/ECC program. With the substantive changes to California’s 2025 Energy Code Compliance Program and other oversight programs, such as ENERGY STAR, CHEERS has changed pricing to support compliance with its training, quality assurance, and registry obligations. These prices reflect pricing during the 2016 and 2019 codes when multiple HERS Providers were working to administer the HERS Program.

The CEC revised the HERS Program, rebranding it as the Energy Code Compliance (ECC) Program, to refine its oversight of the program and improve consumer confidence in the program’s overall performance. These are positive changes intended to grow the ECC Program. There are many new training, registry, and quality assurance requirements for Providers, necessitating the price change. CHEERS is working with the CEC to modernize these requirements where possible. More information about the changes to the program are located here.

The CEC moved the HERS Program from Title 20 to Title 24 and renamed it the Energy Code Compliance Program. With this change, the CEC expanded the responsibilities of Raters and Rater Companies to help grow the program.

– Rater Companies will need to be specially trained and prepared for new reporting and audit requirements.

– Project owners will be entitled to full transparency of a Rater’s work, outcomes, and costs.

– Consumers will be entitled to information about the ECC program and remediation for flawed inspections.

– Building Departments will be entitled to reports of any conflicted or flawed data entered by Raters.

– Raters will receive new training and significantly expanded quality assurance oversight.

– Providers will be required to protect the integrity of all data in the registry and the accuracy of field verification and diagnostic testing, with new reporting and quality assurance mandates.

These improvements are intended to help AHJs have more confidence in field verification and diagnostic testing as a way to save energy and protect consumers.

The customer service and technology required to support performance files in the registry is an essential part of the compliance pathway. The cost for this work is supported by the CF1R fee.

The $7 fee CHEERS will charge is separate from any EnergySoft fee and will be applied to performance CF1R uploads regardless of whether they are created in EnergyPro or CBECC.

It is not. Though ENERGY STAR is a prerequisite for the ZERH program, the cost for ZERH certification is independent of ENERGY STAR. This is because many homes that are ENERGY STAR certified do not ultimately pursue ZERH certification.

In most cases, there is a single fee per product, per unique address in the registry. For nonresidential projects, there is a single fee per system. Examples:

– Alteration T24 project = $30

– Single family, new construction T24 project participating in ENERGY STAR = $115 (T24 = $45, ENERGY STAR = $70)

Unlike prior pricing structures in the industry, CHEERS does not adjust its pricing based on the number of forms or measures required. Pricing can be calculated before a project is registered.

No. The only pricing distinction is whether the project is a new construction or an alteration/existing home project.

Only builders, contractors, and homeowners (acting as a Responsible Party) will require subscriptions to access the registry. These groups play an important role in the energy code compliance process and are supported daily by the CHEERS registry and customer service team.

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