Zero Carbon Ready Metrics for a Single-Family Home in the Sultanate of Oman Based on EDGE Certification System for Green Buildings
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for letting me reviewing this article. I would like to present my concerns below:
Overall the article is well-written and the subject is interesting, yet:
1. Abstract: too much specific information that should not be in the abstract... It is too long too...
It has to follow the abstract rules.
4Cs: Complete — it covers the major parts of the project. Concise — it contains no excess wordiness or unnecessary information. Clear — it is readable, well organized, and not too jargon-laden. Cohesive — it flows smoothly between the parts.
2. Methodology section should be added and clearly state which type of methods and tools has been used. The current description of the case makes your research seen more like a report.
3. Line 95-97: Should become a reference and put at the end of the figure caption, and for all similar case. And the referencing nor as per 'Sustainability journal'.
4. Line 160: This section better to be at the end of the introduction... it should also talk about the gap of this research and how to bridge it.
5. Line 182: I do not think this section is necessary as the article is too long itself.. So, you may start with 3 EDGE Certification directly.
Author Response
Please see attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Some of the questions to be clarified:
What is the EDGE certification system, and how does it help promote sustainable building practices?
What are the four normalized green building metrics presented in the study, and how can they be used to assess the level of sustainability of other buildings in Oman?
How does the green home design in the article achieve significant savings in energy, water, and embodied energy?
What are the benefits of achieving Zero Carbon Ready certification, and how can this inspire other building projects in Oman and beyond?
How long does it take to complete a green building design using the EDGE application, and what are some advantages of using this tool?
What is the goal of the study, and how does it contribute to promoting awareness about green buildings in Oman?
How is the base case in EDGE defined? The way it is assumed, is it Justifiable? Quote with an example.
What is the major change required to be adopted in Oman as a part of the climate-responsive architecture?
What is the major factor that influenced the reduction in EPI?
Author Response
Please see attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper titled: Zero Carbon Ready Metrics for a Single-Family Home in the Sultanate of Oman Based on EDGE Certification System for Green Buildings reports a simulation study for testing the EDGE rating system and for giving insight regarding the design of high energy efficient building in Oman. Hereafter my main comments:
1-the abstract need to be revised collecting the main findings. The actual state is more like a summary of the discussion section.
2-the section 2 need to clarify in detail, perhaps with tables, the difference among the mentioned certification systems and supporting why the author decide to applied the EDGE. Moreover a more detailed literature review must be conduced also looking to ZEB building standard and to the minimum requirement from the legislative point of view. Here some suggestion: Igor Sartori, Assunta Napolitano, Karsten Voss, Net zero energy buildings: A consistent definition framework, energy and buildings, vol 48, 2011, Pages 220-232; M. Sesana, G. Salvalai Overview on life cycle methodologies and economic feasibility for nZEBs, Building and Environment, Vol. 67, 2013, Pages 211-216; Fadi AlFaris, Adel Juaidi, Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro Intelligent homes’ technologies to optimize the energy performance for the net zero energy home, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 153, 2017, Pages 262-274.
3-Section 4 need to be detailed. The author state “In this section, some properties of the residential building that was designed”. The objective of the work is to test the certification on a case study and this must be detailed from the geometrical and technical point of view otherwise It’s hard to read the results.
4-Figure 3 is not needed.
5-the climate data of the figure 3 need to be integrated with solar radiation intensity. This is crucial for understanding the on site energy production potential.
6-Again figure 5 need to be detailed, the actual representation do not bring to the readers any useful information.
7-the information collected in the section 5.1-5.2-5.3 should be part of a more detailed section called Methodology were the author clarify the approach.
8-please explain what “common amenities” represents in the overall energy needs.
9-in general all the results are very had to read considering the very few boundary conditions given into the text. This is the main reason why the paper cannot be accepted in the present form and need to be revised in it’s overall structure.
Author Response
Please see attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for revising the article as per the suggestions. The only concern I still have is the reduction of self-citations as per the allowable rate by the 'Sustainability journal'.
Author Response
Kind find attached document.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Please instead of fig. 4 (actually not linket into the text) provide a more detailed floor plan showing the distribution of the room presented in table 2
Author Response
Kind find attached document.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
