Research on Indoor Thermal Environment Analysis and Optimization Strategy of Rural Dwellings around Xi’an Based on PET Evaluation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper deals with indoor thermal environment analysis and optimization strategy of rural dwellings around Xi’an based on PET evaluation. However, this paper is not qualified for publication with current appearance. Some important problems should be addressed.
1. The abstract should mention the comparison between existing research and the content of this paper, demonstrating the innovation of this study.
2. In the literature review of the introduction, specific cases and data should be used to illustrate the shortcomings of the existing research, rather than directly give the conclusion.
3. In Section 1.3, when introducing the current situation of rural dwellings around Xi 'an, it is suggested to present it in the form of charts, which is more intuitive and concise.
4. In section 2.2, the description of simulation software is too trivial, and the description of simulation method is not clear, so it is suggested to present it in the form of flow chart.
5. It is suggested to adjust Section 3.1 to Section 2 and introduce detail location information of rural dwellings in Section 2 to prevent Section 3 from being too lengthy.
6. The styles of Tables 1 to 13 should be unified. Generally, it is recommended to use three-line tables. The number of tables in the text is large and the content is huge. It is recommended to merge some tables to strive for brevity and clarity.
7. In the results and discussion section, results should analyzed in detail. The current content is not particularly clear, it is superficial.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript deals with an interesting issue of indoor climate in rural buildings. It has a logical and clear layout. Valuable experimental results have been included. However, before final decision on the manuscript several issues and doubts need to be clarified.
You haven't define what is PET.
line 70: pleas add appropriate references (as you did in points 1 and 2)
Table 1 - If numbers from 1 to 11 means various cases/types of buildings, then I wonder if the word "Indicator" should be replaced with other, like "element", "part" or something like that. "Indicator" indicates something, it may have numerical value.
l. 238: Nos. - ? Numbers.
l. 240: "ceramic tiles or tiles" - confusing.
l. 322-323: "Δ?(℃)" - Δ?
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This paper presents a discussion about how to design a rural house with thermally comfortable environment in winter and summer using simulation approach. A basic house model was obtained from the investigation of traditional rural dwellings in Xian, China. PET in the model house was used as an evaluation indicator and simulated under different conditions of building orientation, building size, window-wall ratio, etc. Through the results of the parametric simulation, optimized strategies were obtained for creating a thermally comfortable indoor environment with higher PET in winter and lower PET in summer. The findings obtained in this paper can provide useful references for designing a thermally comfortable rural house in the research region. For possible publication, the manuscript needs to be further improved under consideration of the following comments.
1. It is necessary to explain why PET is a better indicator for evaluating the indoor thermal environment, and what are advantages to use PET as the evaluation indicator instead of PMV, SET*, building energy consumption.
2. How to determine the size (e.g., length and width of a room) of the basic model from the investigated data?
3. The simulated results of PET are at which location on the ground or first floor?
4. How to calculate the average value of PET from the simulated results of PET in the building at a time?
5. What weather conditions are for winter and summer simulation?
6. Shading situations on each window during the simulation winter and summer day?
7. How many times are the air change rate set in the simulation ?
8. It would be better to prepare a table for summarizing the simulation conditions and parameter settings.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
The building has a 20-40% share in energy consumption since almost 90% of people's time is spent in buildings. Preparing comfortable indoor climate conditions for occupants directly affects the quality of life. I would like to inform you, I enjoyed studying your research because your study is focused on rural dwellings. In order to consider the manuscript to be published in a high-ranked journal, some comments should be considered, first of all, the figure captions should be revised, Please check the Figure 4 caption. Moreover, the presented results should be validated. Furthermore, you have to enhance survey on the literature review. As well, the work framework should be added to the study, and you can transfer a part of work to the appendix, such as specifications of buildings, load curve and so on.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 5 Report
A simulation case study approach was undertaken to identify strategies to optimize the indoor thermal comfort of rural housing designs in Xi'an. The research topic is aligned with emerging research trends in sustainable housing designs. The methodology is clear, and the findings are supported with evidence. However, there are a few concerns about the overall study. My specific comments and suggestions are included in the attached document.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
accept
Reviewer 4 Report
Thank you for considering my comments.
