Effect of Floor Shape Optimization on Energy Consumption for U-Shaped Office Buildings in the Hot-Summer and Cold-Winter Area of China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This research aims at assessing how the floor shape may influence on energy consumption in an office building, when considering different U-shaped inputs. The perimeter-area ratio, width-ratio and depth-ratio are analysed.

In order to proceed further with the publication process, some adjustments and modifications must be carried out to improve the quality of the manuscript:

Introduction:

Line 59. ".I"t is [...] When incoporating two figures together, it's better to named them as "a)" and "b)" ; i.e., instead of Figure 1 and Figure 2, it should be Figure 1: a).... b)... (please refer tot he journal's guide). Line 108. characters "s" of Line 114. "F"igure 3 Line 115. South, south by east, and south by "west" ? Line 116. "F"igure 4 Table 2. Despite of the boundary conditions considered, how were the design parameters selected? Using Latin Hypercube Sampling or other statistical technique? This should be included in the text. Line 132. "F"igure 6 Table 3. Units should be separated from numbers (but degrees); i.e. 400 lux instead of 400lux (please refer tot he journal's guide). Line 144. "F"igure 7

Methodology:

More information about the building model simulations must be provided. Were they simulated during the whole year? If so, the reviewer imagines the workday schedule may vary in some months of the year. What weather file was used? "Hot-summer and cold-winter area of China" should be clarified in terms of exterior ambient parameters, since this research has an international scope. What building materials were used in the modelling? What types of HVAC systems were used? Is the office building naturally or mechanically ventilated? Does it have shading systems? Was it simulated as a building placed in an open-area with no shading obstacles or is it located in a neighbourhoood and, so, were other buildings considered for the solar shading analysis?  Likewise, more detail should be given on how DesignBuilder was coupled with Matlab for conducting the predictive analysis.

Results and discussion:

In Tables 8 to 16, the authors included some figures regarding the residuals, but there's no comment in the text about this. This should be explained.

Conclusions:

Line 271. Energy consumption is significantly related to the building systems? Would't it be better to analyse energy demand? If not, please explain why. Line 264. What field data were considered? Line 269. Could the authors explain which climatic regions are they refering to? Figure 8 is quite interesting. It summarizes really well the scope of the paper. However, are the authors sure that all the U-shape consider are acceptable from an architectural point of view?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The introduction must be improved, and up to date references should be added and the discussion session could refer to other researchers results and outcomes to contextualise these paper findings.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have addressed all the suggestions made. Regarding the new information provided in the review report, a few aspects should also be included in the text:

• Line 289. If the field data used in this study was the constructive / geometrical / physical characteristics of the office building, this should be clarified, because it is not clear enough in the text and in may lead to confussion. 
• Line 293. Was Matlab really combined with DesignBuilder or with EnergyPlus? I recommend the authors include the versions and references of the software used.
• Line 296. The authors pointed out that the scope of the paper is to analyse the relationship between building form and energy consumption. The reviewer's question was "why", when building form is directly related to "energy demand" and no "energy consumption", since "energy consumption" depend on "buildings systems selection". Maybe the authos could include some references of the studies made so far on the relationship between energy demand and building form, so that the novelty of this topic could be clearly stated.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx