Energy Star Appliances in LEED

My understanding is that LEED references the ASHRAE 90.1 standard for energy performance and because 90.1 has not traditionally regulated plug loads, equipment loads are considered 'unregulated.' To your point, LEED can certainly choose to go outside 90.1 and deal with plug loads on their own (like under LEED ID+C), but they generally rely on existing standards applicable. While LEED BD+C does not require Energy Star, credit is given via the energy model to plug load energy savings resulting from equipment efficiencies that are over and above an Energy Star baseline. No credit if what you are specifying is worse than or equal to Energy Star. If there are any pilot credits available, I haven't come across them. We do try to influence equipment choice but because the typical owner tends to procure such equipment outside of our scope, which makes it a hard choice to influence. At least for projects that are not going for net-zero energy or some other high-performance goal. On LEED CI projects, documenting the prerequisite and credit related to plug loads (50% by rated power or more Energy Star rated) tends to get held up sometimes because of long waits for information from outside our scope. When peer-reviewing models from consultants, it is disheartening when I see generic plug load assumptions in LEED energy models that tend to overpredict plug load energy consumption. At this point, plug load inputs can move beyond 'assumptions' to actual equipment being installed. It would be good to hear other perspectives, or see a dissertation by Z. Ramana Koti, BEMP, LEED Fellow Senior Associate LordAeckSargent.com