Oh, just for reference, the kitchen is 18'2 X 15'6. Thank you!

I am incapable of doing light plans, but, I suggest you get temporary fixtures and replace them after inspection. Use LED light bulbs so you stay within the spirit of the law. :)

You might also try to install them and see if anyone checks. I bought the wrong faucets and they passed. Using a Tapmaster to control water use assuages any guilt. Also my lawn....

Fori...using temporary fixtures just seems so wasteful. But yes, might be the way we have to go.

Donate them to a Habitat Restore (or check there first if you have one - they often have brand new / leftover fixtures)

I thought only half of your lights needed to be high efficiency in the kitchen, so if you have led cans and UCL you should be fine. At least this is what we were told. Our schoolhouse lights and hood lights don't count as high efficiency but we passed inspections. If you aren't doing led for everything else I'd argue you should be!

@lharpie

It's more than 50% of your wattage has to be high efficiency. Since watts are so low on everything, despite all the UCL, and pot lights, I don't have enough wattage to offset one regular pendant.

I'm planning on $10 temporary lights to pass inspections then replace them. It's $40 to be thrown away but that's what CA laws are designed for, waste and expenses to support the politicians' donors.

I guess it's very inspector dependent then. We have two schoolhouse lights (with screw in led bulbs), 2 cans, and only 50" of UCL. By your measure we shouldn't have passed! They also were so busy with checking the step height for our new exterior door they didn't notice we didn't install a required exterior light.

Beachem, where did you get the $10 temporary lights from? Yes, we are using LED recessed lights everywhere else but they are so low in wattage, they don't even come near one schoolhouse light! One school house light is 60W and the LED is like 8W?

Let me look thru my old thread on lighting. Someone had suggested that idea and linked flush lights from HD for around $10. She did the same to pass inspection then returned them.

Guco45, if the fixtures are the E26 base, your local electrical lighting shop should be able to convert them to GU24 base for you. Ours did, I think it was $15/socket ($10/socket with a volume discount).

Oaktown, did your city accept converted fixtures as compliant with Title 24? I thought it has to be qualified from the manufacture.

Yes. LED luminaires had to be on the list but they passed anything that was rewired to GU24 (not with the screw-in adaptors). We were on pre-2013 Title 24 but I didn't think there have been major changes in lighting? You could check with your local building dept. Our local lighting/electrical shop had someone who was knowledgeable about all the current rules.

How likely is it that they would even check whether they are factory install or converted? I would think that most people would let this slide if you have gone to the trouble of converting to GU24.

My city wants the species of the trees in the yard on the renovation plans. That's pretty detailed in my opinion. I rather just follow the guidelines and pass!

@lharpie. It depends on your inspector. It cost me an additional $800 and 3 weeks of my plumber's time to track down and get updated certification on a single 2" something on my gas line before the inspector would sign off on the gas.

That was him being nice. Before he got all happy about my new plumber being a master plumber and found out that my plumber's father was the head of the county's plumber union, he was more difficult and nit picking. For example, he failed a 2 years old water heater install that he personally approved 2 years before.

Huh. This is making me rethink my plans to pull permits for replacing the rest of the electric in my house in the next couple months... Seriously they passed you then failed 2 years later? That's crazy! Sounds like I could be out of luck if they look at the kitchen again, and I'm toast if they even glance at my water heater! No one seemed to notice it last time thankfully (we opted for electric heat pump specifically for energy/resource use concerns, but Title 24 doesn't allow this yet we are pretty sure).

@lharpie it was my luck in getting that inspector. Apparently he is known by all contractors as very difficult. When he was on vacation, the other inspector walked in, signed off electrical and out in 30 seconds vs. spending 20 minutes going thru things with a fine tooth comb.

speaking of water heaters, we are going with a tankless with a recirculating pump. Any suggestions on brand?

We've been in our new house a week, and our Noritz tankless (gas) with recirculating pump is awesome. With enough flow through the fixtures (we have one faucet that doesn't have enough volume-grr) we get hot water on the other side of the house from the tankless in 2-3 seconds. Sometimes right away.

As to LED lighting, it irked me no end how much more expensive LED lights are vs. incandescent. In the interests of mental health, I eventually surrendered and got mostly Title 24 compliant stuff. The kitchen pendants aren't compliant, nor are four chandeliers, but our inspector barely looked at them. Thankfully. A nitpicky inspector could have made things tough.

In 2012 we did a full house rewire job and added 250 sq ft where we moved the kitchen and added a bath. We passed with LED cans, regular fixtures in the bath (no cans), halogen under cabinet lighting, a vintage single bulb rewired fixture in the pantry and a schoolhouse fixture over the sink. No added cans in the house, just replaced knob and tube and kept the fixtures. Somehow the math worked out and we passed.

Here's the link, see pages 14-15. GU24 luminaires are fine. LEDs have to be certified. Screw-in adaptors do not satisfy Title 24.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/2013publications/CEC-400-2013-001/chapters/06_Residential_Lighting.pdf