MEP PE Stamp in San Diego County, CA: What Gets Reviewed Before Sealing?

The San Diego MEP review treats Title 24 reconciliation as the central discipline, because the mild climate leaves no room for sloppy margins. I read the compliance documentation against the sealed set: equipment efficiencies on the forms against the equipment schedules, lighting power densities against the lighting plans, controls sequences against what the drawings show, envelope values against the architectural backgrounds. Where the forms describe a different building than the drawings — a value-engineered equipment swap, a lighting redesign, a controls sequence shown schematically but never detailed — it gets marked as a revision before the seal. The mild climate also shapes the mechanical review itself: with small thermal loads, correct sizing matters more, not less. Oversized equipment short-cycles, dehumidifies poorly, and wastes the efficiency the Title 24 model assumed — so I verify equipment selections against the calculated loads rather than accepting rules of thumb. The sealed drawings should show a mechanical system right-sized for its climate, with the compliance documentation to prove it.

County and city reviewers read the MEP set the way a contractor builds from it. Riser diagrams get checked against the floor plans — every fixture tracing to the riser, with pipe sizing, slopes, and venting that satisfy the plumbing code. Panel schedules get checked against the electrical riser: calculated loads, breaker sizes, and feeder sizes in agreement, with the service calculation supporting the building. Fixture counts get checked against occupancy, specialty systems against their code chapters, and the Title 24 documentation against the drawings it claims to describe. The PE's pre-seal review runs this same gauntlet, which is the entire value of review-and-seal: corrections from your own engineer are fixed in days, corrections from the AHJ cost a review cycle. I also verify the MEP layouts against the structural backgrounds — the lateral system's shear walls and collectors have to coexist with ductwork and piping — because clashes found at plan check cost a correction cycle while clashes found at the engineer's desk cost an afternoon.

An MEP package is ready for the PE's review — and then for the AHJ — when these items are resolved. Title 24 consistency and right-sized mechanical design are the themes. • AHJ confirmed by parcel: county Planning & Development Services vs City of San Diego vs the other cities • California-licensed PE in responsible charge of the MEP review • Title 24 compliance documentation reconciled line-by-line against the sealed MEP set • HVAC load calculations with realistic coastal or inland-valley conditions; equipment right-sized, not oversized • Equipment schedules, lighting plans, and controls matching the compliance forms • Plumbing risers, fixture counts, and electrical panels/riser fully coordinated • MEP layouts coordinated with structural framing and shear walls before sealing