Decrepit Building Monitoring Solution for Zero Energy Building Management Using PLC and Android Application
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The title of the paper is somewhat cryptic, as an ambiguous abbreviation is used that has more than one typical meaning. Also, the choice of focusing on decrepit buildings is a double edged sword.
The manuscript reports on a timely and relevant issue that is aligned with current trends. That said, the paper fails to establish a consistent case for the inclusion of such matter of smart metering in decrepit buildings as a sustainability issue. How is this solution more sustainable? It is certainly not enough to say [line 46] " Smart grids do not simply contribute to better sustainability" without any presentation of the logical arguments and reference citation of previous studies that prove the point risen. Moreover, the passage from the abstract [lines 18-21] "Expecting that the proposed platform technology to be one of the promising technologies for Sustainable Building, its uninterrupted power usage monitoring and remote power control/management functions will be quite useful for economizing power with convenience" is really showing wishful thinking hinting at an economic dimension. But on what assumptions is this paper based, after all, what is meant exactly by decrepit buildings, are all decrepit buildings in the same level of habitability? Most importantly are decrepit buildings safe? Is this a way to perpetuate utilization of frail buildings that might not be habitable or place occupants at risk of collapsing, or fires, as well as electric shocks, not to mention gas explosions? How is [line 51] 'a sustainable society supported by the smart energy systems' in decrepit buildings? The sustainability discussion is missing from the manuscript and perhaps the manuscript is more suited to other journals, where it might be a better fit, e.g. Energies.
Language wise the paper while legible and mostly up to standard does suffer from some problems in syntax which should be solved with a proofreading conducted by Native English speakers. Moreover, it is important to introduce all abbreviations the first time they are used both in the abstract as well as in the main text. In particular PLC is commonly used for Programmable Logical Controller, and hence the use of PLC dozens of times throughout the paper without introducing the intended use of the abbreviation (Power Line Communication) is highly distracting.
Lines 34 to 51, where the case for the paper is made have no citations. This makes the case look weak and unsupported by previous peer-reviewed contributions, jeopardizing the value of the proposition for the potential readers.
The purpose of the paper is to describe the details of the PLC mechanism proposed and related protocols implemented with both C and C++ languages. Coupled with an absent adequately referenced justification for any relevance of the study on sustainability, the technical description to the level of detail used in the manuscript also supports the consideration that the manuscript is displaced and might be unsuitable for the Sustainability journal. From a technical standpoint the manuscript appears to have a complete cycle of Design, Implementation and testing of a Technological configuration. That said, the assumptions and implications for the Sustainability discussion are to weak to justify publication in Sustainability. The over emphasis on the details of the solution suggests that the paper would be a better fit in another journal.
Moreover, the paper fails to discuss any critical limitations that might limit the generalisability of the findings.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The title of the paper is somewhat cryptic, as an ambiguous abbreviation is used that has more than one typical meaning. Also, the choice of focusing on decrepit buildings is a double edged sword.
Reply-----
Thank you for reviewing this paper and providing valuable comments. We have corrected ambiguous abbreviations in the title and awkward expressions in the main text in consultation with a native speaker, and we are requesting another review if possible. The changed and corrected parts are in blue font.
Decrepit Building Monitoring Solution for Zero Energy Building Management Using PLC and Android Application ->
Decrepit Building Monitoring Solution for Zero Energy Building Management Using Power Line Communication and Android Application
The manuscript reports on a timely and relevant issue that is aligned with current trends. That said, the paper fails to establish a consistent case for the inclusion of such matter of smart metering in decrepit buildings as a sustainability issue. How is this solution more sustainable? It is certainly not enough to say [line 46] " Smart grids do not simply contribute to better sustainability" without any presentation of the logical arguments and reference citation of previous studies that prove the point risen. Moreover, the passage from the abstract [lines 18-21] "Expecting that the proposed platform technology to be one of the promising technologies for Sustainable Building, its uninterrupted power usage monitoring and remote power control/management functions will be quite useful for economizing power with convenience" is really showing wishful thinking hinting at an economic dimension. But on what assumptions is this paper based, after all, what is meant exactly by decrepit buildings, are all decrepit buildings in the same level of habitability? Most importantly are decrepit buildings safe? Is this a way to perpetuate utilization of frail buildings that might not be habitable or place occupants at risk of collapsing, or fires, as well as electric shocks, not to mention gas explosions? How is [line 51] 'a sustainable society supported by the smart energy systems' in decrepit buildings? The sustainability discussion is missing from the manuscript and perhaps the manuscript is more suited to other journals, where it might be a better fit, e.g. Energies.
Reply-----
As in any country, many old buildings in Korea are repaired to be used for 40 to 50 years or even longer since constructing new ones is expensive. Because remodeling old buildings is not only expensive but also generates construction waste, repairing is the preferred alternative in many cases.
- The structure cited for the testing of this paper was a steel-concrete building constructed in January 1980. The building located in front of Geumjeong-gu Office in Busan was facing reconstruction in the near future, and we used it as a testbed for two years and verified the safety of power line communication.
- The office room we selected for the test had no city gas service, only the electrical heating system. As such, it had the spring cooler that is activated automatically in case of fire caused by an electrical short circuit. It shared the electricity with an accountant’s office on the third floor and paid half of the total electricity bill. The contribution of this paper would be the implementation of a system (power metering) that metered the power line communication and automatically divided the electricity bill for payment with an Android app.
One of the authors, Jun-Ho Huh, has the certification related to power, and he has published book [6] related to power line communication.
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Communication-Advances-Computer-Electrical-Engineering/dp/1522527761
- The table below shows the power measurement data for about two years.
- We added the phrase above in the acknowledgment to increase readability for the reader. Can you review the paper again, if possible?
Language wise the paper while legible and mostly up to standard does suffer from some problems in syntax which should be solved with a proofreading conducted by Native English speakers. Moreover, it is important to introduce all abbreviations the first time they are used both in the abstract as well as in the main text. In particular PLC is commonly used for Programmable Logical Controller, and hence the use of PLC dozens of times throughout the paper without introducing the intended use of the abbreviation (Power Line Communication) is highly distracting.
Reply -----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We corrected distracting phrases in consultation with a native speaker and tried to reduce the use of the term “PLC.”
Lines 34 to 51, where the case for the paper is made have no citations. This makes the case look weak and unsupported by previous peer-reviewed contributions, jeopardizing the value of the proposition for the potential readers.
Reply à Thank you for your valuable opinion. We revised and added a citation to increase the readability of the paper, and we ask you to review the paper again if possible.
The purpose of the paper is to describe the details of the PLC mechanism proposed and related protocols implemented with both C and C++ languages. Coupled with an absent adequately referenced justification for any relevance of the study on sustainability, the technical description to the level of detail used in the manuscript also supports the consideration that the manuscript is displaced and might be unsuitable for the Sustainability journal. From a technical standpoint the manuscript appears to have a complete cycle of Design, Implementation and testing of a Technological configuration. That said, the assumptions and implications for the Sustainability discussion are to weak to justify publication in Sustainability. The over emphasis on the details of the solution suggests that the paper would be a better fit in another journal.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We revised and added a citation to increase the readability of the paper, and we ask you to review the paper again if possible.
The description of the proposed PLC system and its mechanism is presented in this study along with its protocols developed with either C or C++ language. Developed especially for decrepit buildings or apartments, this PLC-based solution worked flexibly and efficiently during the Test Bed experiment; such result obtained through a series of analyses and simulations can be considered to be the major contribution of this study.
As in any country, many old buildings in Korea are repaired to be used for 40 to 50 years or even longer since constructing new ones is expensive. Because remodeling old buildings is not only expensive but also generates construction waste, repairing is the preferred alternative in many cases.
The structure cited for the testing of this paper was a steel-concrete building constructed in January 1980. The building located in front of Geumjeong-gu Office in Busan was facing reconstruction in the near future, and we used it as a testbed for two years and verified the safety of power line communication.
The office room we selected for the test had no city gas service, only the electrical heating system. As such, it had the spring cooler that is activated automatically in case of fire caused by an electrical short circuit. It shared the electricity with an accountant’s office on the third floor and paid half of the total electricity bill. The contribution of this paper would be the implementation of a system (power metering) that metered the power line communication and automatically divided the electricity bill for payment with an Android app.
Moreover, the paper fails to discuss any critical limitations that might limit the generalisability of the findings.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We added the significance of this paper and the significance to the Sustainability journal. The first author, Jun-Ho Huh , has published papers related to [51-54], and the communicating author, Jong-Hyuk Park [55], has served as editor of Sustainability. Can you review the paper again, if possible? We submitted this paper because Sustainability tends to publish papers related to convergence with IT nowadays.
[51]. Jun-Ho Huh. "Server operation and virtualization to save energy and cost in future sustainable computing." Sustainability 10.6 (2018): 1919.
[52] Jun-Ho Huh, and Seong-Kyu Kim. "The blockchain consensus algorithm for viable management of new and renewable energies." Sustainability 11.11 (2019): 3184.
[53] Se-Hoon Jung, and Jun-Ho Huh. "A novel on transmission line tower big data analysis model using altered K-means and ADQL." Sustainability 11.13 (2019): 3499.
[54] Jong-Chan Kim, Jun-Ho Huh, and Jae-Sub Ko. "Improvement of MPPT Control Performance Using Fuzzy Control and VGPI in the PV System for Micro Grid." Sustainability 11.21 (2019): 5891.
[55] https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/it_based_future_sustainable_computing
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript covers an interesting R&D topic and fits the scope of the Journal. Nonetheless, the paper requires extra efforts to improve its quality and presentation. A set of comments are expounded hereafter.
- The manuscript is, in general, well organized. However, there are some mistakes or improvements to introduce regarding the format of the document, as commented below.
The position of the authors is not required information.
In line 44 there are two words underlined in red. Perhaps it is some rest of the writing phase.
“Smart Grid”, “Smart grid” and “smart grid” are used in the manuscript. Only one form should be used for a proper presentation. A similar issue takes place for “RS-232” and “RS232”.
The acronym GUI must be defined the first time it is used, Graphical User Interface. The same occurs for DCU. In addition, once an abbreviation has been defined, it must be used along the manuscript. For instance, the title of subsection 5.2 should contain GUI.
Using “&” for reference citations is not adequate for a scientific paper. This must be revised in section 2.
The title of Table 2 contains “algorism”, which is clearly a mistake that should be solved.
The references must be revised according to the template of the Journal (abbreviated names of journals, etc.).
- About the content of the manuscript, as aforementioned, it covers an interesting topic. The comments after a careful revision are the following:
Including both “PLC” and “Power Line Communications” in the list of keywords could be misleading. This reviewer suggests the second one.
The contextualization of PLC is well scheduled. Figure 1 is very illustrative.
Nonetheless, the authors should consider including some recent publications dealing with Smart Grids and the issue of interoperability in order to highlight the barrier that it involves for large-scale deployment. Namely, the following papers could be considered:
De Araújo, P.R.C.; Filho, R.H.; Rodrigues, J.J.P.C.; Oliveira, J.P.C.M.; Braga, S.A. Infrastructure for Integration of Legacy Electrical Equipment into a Smart-Grid Using Wireless Sensor Networks. Sensors 2018, 18, 1312. Viciana, E.; Alcayde, A.; Montoya, F.G.; Baños, R.; Arrabal-Campos, F.M.; Zapata-Sierra, A.; Manzano-Agugliaro, F. OpenZmeter: An Efficient Low-Cost Energy Smart Meter and Power Quality Analyzer. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4038. González, I.; Calderón, A.J. Integration of open source hardware Arduino platform in automation systems applied to Smart Grids/Micro-Grids. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 2019, 36, 100557. DOI: 10.1016/j.seta.2019.100557. Ghasempour, A. Internet of Things in Smart Grid: Architecture, Applications, Services, Key Technologies, and Challenges. Inventions 2019, 4, 22.
In Figure 2, the computer that appears is accompanied by “Your Computer”. This reviewer suggests removing “Your” for a better presentation.
GUI and monitoring interfaces are, in general, very important for any process that must be tracked. Even more, in the case of energy related facilities aligned with the Smart Grid scenario, this is an issue of the utmost importance. In this sense, this reviewer is happy of finding descriptive information about the developed GUI in section 5. There are many papers that put the focus on statistics and mathematical formulae without paying attention to the user interface, conducting certain underestimation of its importance. Consequently, apart from this comment, it would be interesting to mention within the manuscript the aforementioned importance of GUI and monitoring interfaces in order to highlight the contribution of the presented work. In the authors agree, the following papers could be used to support such assertion:
Maria-AngelesSanchez-HidalgoMaria-DoloresCano. A survey on visual data representation for smart grids control and monitoring. Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, Volume 16, December 2018, Pages 351-369. Viciana, E.; Alcayde, A.; Montoya, F.G.; Baños, R.; Arrabal-Campos, F.M.; Zapata-Sierra, A.; Manzano-Agugliaro, F. OpenZmeter: An Efficient Low-Cost Energy Smart Meter and Power Quality Analyzer. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4038.
Concerning the RS-232 interface, a brief mention to the OSI model where such interface corresponds to the physical layer or layer 1. This could be placed in the fourth section.
Figure 21 seems to have been edited; indeed, the buttons placed in the lower part of the screen are excessively wide. This reviewer suggests, for this and/or other publications, using actual screenshots of the smartphone screen instead of editing it. Moreover, adding the date to the visualization interface would enhance its usability.
In the third table, in the final row, this reviewer suggest removing “Ours” maintaining, thus, the term “Proposed system”.
Have the authors studied the possibility of using open-source technologies in their proposal? Equipment like microcontroller Arduino or microcomputer Raspberry Pi are versatile and are achieving increasing interest for energy monitoring and automation purposes.
For further works, the authors could consider using Ethernet-based communication in order to facilitate the integration with modern devices integrating Ethernet ports. Nevertheless, this is a humble suggestion out of the presented research.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript covers an interesting R&D topic and fits the scope of the Journal. Nonetheless, the paper requires extra efforts to improve its quality and presentation. A set of comments are expounded hereafter.
- The manuscript is, in general, well organized. However, there are some mistakes or improvements to introduce regarding the format of the document, as commented below.
The position of the authors is not required information.
Reply-----
Thank you for reviewing this paper. We revised the paper in consultation with a native speaker to increase readability. We ask you to review it again, if possible. Thank you for your valuable opinion. We deleted and revised the titles of the authors.
In line 44 there are two words underlined in red. Perhaps it is some rest of the writing phase.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinions and findings. We made changes as you suggested. We had it proofread by a native speaker, and then edited it additionally to make the paper more readable. The changed sections are in red font.
“Smart Grid”, “Smart grid” and “smart grid” are used in the manuscript. Only one form should be used for a proper presentation. A similar issue takes place for “RS-232” and “RS232”.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. There was some inconsistency in terms as we worked on the paper over several years. We unified terms related to the Smart Grid and RS-232 and had the paper proofread by a native speaker to correct awkward phrases. The changed section is in blue font, and we ask you to review our paper again if possible.
The acronym GUI must be defined the first time it is used, Graphical User Interface. The same occurs for DCU. In addition, once an abbreviation has been defined, it must be used along the manuscript. For instance, the title of subsection 5.2 should contain GUI.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We added the definition of each abbreviation in the first instance and created the Appendix section to list all abbreviations together with their meanings. We ask you to review the paper again, if possible.
Appendix: Abbreviations
PLC: Power Line Communication
DR: Demand-Response
HV: High-Voltage
UNB-PLC: Ultra-narrowband Power Line Communication
NB-PLC: NarrowBand Power Line Communication
HIFs: High-Impedance Faults
PLC-AN: PLC-Access Network
PLC-OR: PLC-Opportunistic Routing
MP-PLCA: Multi-Protocol PLC Analyzer
GUI: Graphical User Interface
DCU: Data Concentration Unit
Using “&” for reference citations is not adequate for a scientific paper. This must be revised in section 2.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We changed “&” to “and.”
The title of Table 2 contains “algorism”, which is clearly a mistake that should be solved.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We made corrections as you suggested.
The references must be revised according to the template of the Journal (abbreviated names of journals, etc.).
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We revised the references according to the template. The changed sections are in blue font.
- About the content of the manuscript, as aforementioned, it covers an interesting topic. The comments after a careful revision are the following:
Including both “PLC” and “Power Line Communications” in the list of keywords could be misleading. This reviewer suggests the second one.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We used “Power Line Communication” in the keywords.
The contextualization of PLC is well scheduled. Figure 1 is very illustrative.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We deleted Figure 1 to increase the readability of the paper.
Nonetheless, the authors should consider including some recent publications dealing with Smart Grids and the issue of interoperability in order to highlight the barrier that it involves for large-scale deployment. Namely, the following papers could be considered:
De Araújo, P.R.C.; Filho, R.H.; Rodrigues, J.J.P.C.; Oliveira, J.P.C.M.; Braga, S.A. Infrastructure for Integration of Legacy Electrical Equipment into a Smart-Grid Using Wireless Sensor Networks. Sensors 2018, 18, 1312. Viciana, E.; Alcayde, A.; Montoya, F.G.; Baños, R.; Arrabal-Campos, F.M.; Zapata-Sierra, A.; Manzano-Agugliaro, F. OpenZmeter: An Efficient Low-Cost Energy Smart Meter and Power Quality Analyzer. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4038. González, I.; Calderón, A.J. Integration of open source hardware Arduino platform in automation systems applied to Smart Grids/Micro-Grids. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 2019, 36, 100557. DOI: 10.1016/j.seta.2019.100557. Ghasempour, A. Internet of Things in Smart Grid: Architecture, Applications, Services, Key Technologies, and Challenges. Inventions 2019, 4, 22.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We studied further the operability of the smart grid and added the following section (in blue):
The infrastructure introduced by Paulo Régis C. De Araújo et al [41]. in their work ‘Infrastructure for Integration of Legacy Electrical Equipment into Smart-Grid Using Wireless Sensor Networks’ proposes a system where individual legacy electrical devices are integrated to be connected to a sensor node and the sink node links it with a Smart Grid using an appropriate communication protocol. Also, the research work ‘OpenZmeter: An Efficient Low-Cost Energy Smart Meter and Power Quality Analyzer’ by Eduardo Viciana et al [42]. specifically points out that consumers usually are not provided with the information about their energy consumption status on a real-time basis as well as the quality of power they are using due to the cost of available electric energy meters that are often so complex for them to understand or operate. The authors proposed an alternative affordable but innovative home-use electric energy meter that was supposed to be more precise, manageable, and reliable while offering better convenience. The system performance was quite satisfactory when it was tested in a household for a period of two weeks and the performance data also supported the system proposed in this paper.
Additionally, González et al. [43] introduced a systemical approach that allows PLCs and Arduino platforms to be integrated into a SCADA system with the connectivity offered by Open Platform Communications (OPC). In this system, the open-source device focuses on sensing tasks exclusively. The validity of this approach was proven by applying its concept to an experimental automated SMG which was intended to monitor the temperature level of a specific PV panel, presenting satisfactory results [44].
In Figure 2, the computer that appears is accompanied by “Your Computer”. This reviewer suggests removing “Your” for a better presentation.
Reply -----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We made the correction as you suggested.
GUI and monitoring interfaces are, in general, very important for any process that must be tracked. Even more, in the case of energy related facilities aligned with the Smart Grid scenario, this is an issue of the utmost importance. In this sense, this reviewer is happy of finding descriptive information about the developed GUI in section 5. There are many papers that put the focus on statistics and mathematical formulae without paying attention to the user interface, conducting certain underestimation of its importance. Consequently, apart from this comment, it would be interesting to mention within the manuscript the aforementioned importance of GUI and monitoring interfaces in order to highlight the contribution of the presented work. In the authors agree, the following papers could be used to support such assertion:
Maria-AngelesSanchez-HidalgoMaria-DoloresCano. A survey on visual data representation for smart grids control and monitoring. Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks, Volume 16, December 2018, Pages 351-369. Viciana, E.; Alcayde, A.; Montoya, F.G.; Baños, R.; Arrabal-Campos, F.M.; Zapata-Sierra, A.; Manzano-Agugliaro, F. OpenZmeter: An Efficient Low-Cost Energy Smart Meter and Power Quality Analyzer. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4038.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We studied your comment further and added the section. The following section (in blue) was added:
Meanwhile, Maria-Angeles, Sanchez-Hidalgo, and Maria-Dolores Cano [45] pointed out in their work ‘A survey on visual data representation for Smart Grids control and monitoring’ that all the collected/processed data in a Smart Grid are inherently heterogeneous because of the intrinsic nature of Smart Grids and it is essential to devise effective ICT tools or platforms that can provide a broader spectrum of multi-dimensional control perspective that could effectively support modern energy industry. They emphasized that data visualization could be an effective solution when monitoring/analyzing/responding to the events efficiently within a Smart Grid. For this study, a wide range of relevant research works was studied to investigate previously available visualization methods and propose an optimal one for the control and monitoring tasks in a Smart Grid.
Today, people and things are being connected by IoT systems regardless of time or space owing to the number of networks and services getting larger and larger every day. In this context, IoT can be regarded as a dynamic network infrastructure connecting worldwide internet users with online services. IoT technology/system has become an essential part of a Smart Grid where data is exchanged through a communication network connected to a power grid to autonomously collect and analyze the data obtained by monitoring transmission lines, substations distributing power or household/business users.
Concerning the RS-232 interface, a brief mention to the OSI model where such interface corresponds to the physical layer or layer 1. This could be placed in the fourth section.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We moved it to the fourth section to increase the readability of the paper.
Figure 21 seems to have been edited; indeed, the buttons placed in the lower part of the screen are excessively wide. This reviewer suggests, for this and/or other publications, using actual screenshots of the smartphone screen instead of editing it. Moreover, adding the date to the visualization interface would enhance its usability.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We had used the bird’s eye view picture since it was before the program registration but changed and added the figures in our smartphone. We changed the image to reflect the completion of the testbed. We also added the contribution to the Acknowledgment section.
Figure 20. User Interface for power usage monitoring.
In the third table, in the final row, this reviewer suggest removing “Ours” maintaining, thus, the term “Proposed system”.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We made the correction as you suggested.
Have the authors studied the possibility of using open-source technologies in their proposal? Equipment like microcontroller Arduino or microcomputer Raspberry Pi are versatile and are achieving increasing interest for energy monitoring and automation purposes.
Reply-----
We plan to disclose it in the open source as was the case of the author’s previous paper [1] when the journal is accepted and the program and patent are registered. Of course, the open source would exclude the key code related to the patent. We are positive about participating in open-source activities. We have applied further studies for the Advanced R&D Project sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Education, and we plan to continue related studies if the application is approved. The following sections are added:
For further works, the authors could consider using Ethernet-based communication in order to facilitate the integration with modern devices integrating Ethernet ports. Nevertheless, this is a humble suggestion out of the presented research.
Reply-----
Thank you for your valuable opinion. We will try to add it in our further studies. We appreciate again your thorough review of our paper and your valuable comments and ask that you review again the paper, which was edited by a native speaker. Thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
In this revision, the authors have failed to address my comments. As such, the issues raised earlier remain unaddressed.
The manuscript reports on a timely and relevant issue that is aligned with current trends. That said, the paper fails to establish a consistent case for the inclusion of such matter of smart metering in decrepit buildings as a sustainability issue. How is this solution more sustainable? It is certainly not enough to say [line 46] " Smart grids do not simply contribute to better sustainability" without any presentation of the logical arguments and reference citation of previous studies that prove the point risen. Moreover, the passage from the abstract [lines 18-21] "Expecting that the proposed platform technology to be one of the promising technologies for Sustainable Building, its uninterrupted power usage monitoring and remote power control/management functions will be quite useful for economizing power with convenience" is really showing wishful thinking hinting at an economic dimension. But on what assumptions is this paper based, after all, what is meant exactly by decrepit buildings, are all decrepit buildings in the same level of habitability? Most importantly are decrepit buildings safe? Is this a way to perpetuate utilization of frail buildings that might not be habitable or place occupants at risk of collapsing, or fires, as well as electric shocks, not to mention gas explosions? How is [line 51] 'a sustainable society supported by the smart energy systems' in decrepit buildings? The sustainability discussion is missing from the manuscript and perhaps the manuscript is more suited to other journals, where it might be a better fit, e.g. Energies.
Author Response
Reply -----
Dear Reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our paper again. Following your comment, we’ve highlighted the additional or changed part in red whereas the part required to be supplemented, in red. We’d like to request re-review if possible and the added part is as follows.
Add 1) The PLC described in this paper is to achieve communications by loading a frequency signal much higher than AC frequency (50/60Hz) onto the power line supplying AC current. The low-speed PLC carrying a frequency signal from 10 to 450Hz is being used for the communications between old ships or railroad cars, or for the automatic power meter reading. We’ve validated the use of this technology and the contribution of this research work can be found in the automated meter reading utilizing the PLC system.
Sustainability has become an important concept when constructing a nearly or completely net-zero energy building and is being incorporated into its design process as well as construction and operation processes. Currently, a series of advanced sustainable technological solutions are being introduced to enhance the level of thermal performance of building envelopes or promote the utilization of renewable energies. The sustainable buildings designed in a way to adapt to surrounding environmental factors such as weather conditions or the artificial changes controlled within the building itself to provide and maintain better human comfort. Thus, planning the use of appropriate building materials or technologies is an essential part of the design process in which durability, energy efficiency, maintainability of the building should be considered first followed by recyclability and cost-effectiveness of the materials to be used for the purpose of reducing the negative impact on the environment [3]. Taking these into account, this paper focused on the recyclability and maintainability of Decrepit/old building.
Add 2) In modern society, it has become quite clear that constructing a new building is not economic so that most of the old buildings in the Republic of Korea often undergo full renovation or partial remodeling process to sustain or extend their lifespans much longer. Besides the expense, another major reason for recycling these buildings is to avoid a negative impact on the environment commonly due to various types of wastes generating from the construction work. An old steel-reinforced building built in Jan. 1980 and located in the vicinity of a local government office (Geumjeong-gu Office) was selected for this research work. As the building was subjected to reconstruction, it was quite suitable for a testbed experiment to validate the feasibility and stability of the proposed power line communication. The experiment was conducted over a period of two years at an office room where an automatic sprinkler and electric heating system were available. The electricity was shared with another office on the separate floor and the bill was paid equally. The major feature, which can be considered as the contribution of the implemented PLC system is that the power usages are measured individually with the PLC-based power meter which allowed each room’s electricity charge to be checked and billed separately on an Android app.
Move 1) 3. Design of Monitoring System for Target Building
As in any country, many old buildings in Korea are repaired to be used for 40 to 50 years or even longer since constructing new ones is expensive. Because remodeling old buildings is not only expensive but also generates construction waste, repairing is the preferred alternative in many cases.
The structure cited for the testing of this paper was a steel-concrete building constructed in January 1980. The building located in front of Geumjeong-gu Office in Busan was facing reconstruction in the near future, and we used it as a testbed for two years and verified the safety of power line communication.
The office room we selected for the test had no city gas service, only the electrical heating system. As such, it had the spring cooler that is activated automatically in case of fire caused by an electrical short circuit. It shared the electricity with an accountant’s office on the third floor and paid half of the total electricity bill. The contribution of this paper would be the implementation of a system (power metering) that metered the power line communication and automatically divided the electricity bill for payment with an Android app.
Add 3) One of the success cases of using PLC technology for old buildings can be first found in the PLC testbed service carried out by SK Broadband (ROK) for 100 households in 2017. Their service allowed the users to enjoy an average speed of 100Mbps just by plugging the PLC equipment into a power outlet and it was validated that the speed up to 800Mbps can be achieved with this technology, which is not much different from the 100Mbps high-speed or Max. 1Gbps Giga-internet service currently available. Although the PLC system seemed to be promising after the ROK’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy and Ministry of Information and Communication revised the Radio Waves Act and prepared the PLC National Standard in 2007 to promote and spread power line-based home networks, it was not actually adopted for the domestic high-speed internet services due to the dispute over its stability and oppositions by most of the communication service providers; only a few companies including Samsung and LG Electronics provided the PLC-based home network services. At the same time, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCOM) also attempted to enter the local home network service business with their own PLC system but failed to achieve its commercialization. SK Broadband explained at that time that they were able to provide their testbed service after securing enough speed and stability close to a gigabyte-based service, which was not possible earlier.
Most of the buildings constructed before 2000 had some limitations when trying to use high-speed internet, internet TV/telephone or WiFi so that LAN cables had to be installed additionally. Also, the demand for LAN cables is increasing recently as the number of households using a multiple number of these devices/equipment is growing rapidly, supporting the economic feasibility of PLC-based systems. SK Broadband is expecting that these systems will play a big role when they attempt to penetrate the niche market targeting old areas/buildings where installation of LAN cables can be costly or difficult [47].
Meanwhile, the ROK’s Geumcheon-gu Office conducted a testbed service for an apartment complex in 2019 to replace its old mechanical power meters with smart meters using PLC equipment. The main point of this project was to allow the residents of Doksan Newtown Branew Apartment Complex to check their own power usages on a real-time basis on an app anytime anywhere through newly installed smart meters. The task of replacing old meters was carried out by an energy company Energynet specializing in the PLC business that focuses on voice-call and data communication systems through existing power lines as a medium. Geumcheon-gu Office expected that the accuracy and efficiency would increase much through remote meter reading without requiring a lot of manpower once the testbed service was implemented. They are also expecting that the data collected from the real-time transformer and power use monitoring systems will be used as big data in the future through an integrated management system. All of these systems will be helpful for the residents to save their power usages which in turn will be returned to them in a form of Ecomileage [48].
- SK Broadband, https://www.mk.co.kr/news/business/view/2017/03/151149/ (In Korean)
- http://m.electimes.com/article.php?aid=1566520662184954010 (In Korean)
Appendix: Abbreviations
PLC: Power Line Communication
SMI: Smart Metering Infrastructure
DR: Demand-Response
HV: High-Voltage
UNB-PLC: Ultra-narrowband Power Line Communication
NB-PLC: NarrowBand Power Line Communication
HIFs: High-Impedance Faults
PLC-AN: PLC-Access Network
PLC-OR: PLC-Opportunistic Routing
MP-PLCA: Multi-Protocol PLC Analyzer
GUI: Graphical User Interface
DCU: Data Concentration Unit
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper has been enhanced. Congratulations to the authors for their efforts.
Author Response
Reply-----
Dear Reviewer
Thank you for reviewing our paper again. We revised the paper in consultation with a native speaker to increase readability again. Also, we ask you to review it again, if possible. Thank you for your valuable opinion. We’d like to request re-review if possible and the added part is as follows.
Add 1) The PLC described in this paper is to achieve communications by loading a frequency signal much higher than AC frequency (50/60Hz) onto the power line supplying AC current. The low-speed PLC carrying a frequency signal from 10 to 450Hz is being used for the communications between old ships or railroad cars, or for the automatic power meter reading. We’ve validated the use of this technology and the contribution of this research work can be found in the automated meter reading utilizing the PLC system.
Sustainability has become an important concept when constructing a nearly or completely net-zero energy building and is being incorporated into its design process as well as construction and operation processes. Currently, a series of advanced sustainable technological solutions are being introduced to enhance the level of thermal performance of building envelopes or promote the utilization of renewable energies. The sustainable buildings designed in a way to adapt to surrounding environmental factors such as weather conditions or the artificial changes controlled within the building itself to provide and maintain better human comfort. Thus, planning the use of appropriate building materials or technologies is an essential part of the design process in which durability, energy efficiency, maintainability of the building should be considered first followed by recyclability and cost-effectiveness of the materials to be used for the purpose of reducing the negative impact on the environment [3]. Taking these into account, this paper focused on the recyclability and maintainability of Decrepit/old building.
Add 2) In modern society, it has become quite clear that constructing a new building is not economic so that most of the old buildings in the Republic of Korea often undergo full renovation or partial remodeling process to sustain or extend their lifespans much longer. Besides the expense, another major reason for recycling these buildings is to avoid a negative impact on the environment commonly due to various types of wastes generating from the construction work. An old steel-reinforced building built in Jan. 1980 and located in the vicinity of a local government office (Geumjeong-gu Office) was selected for this research work. As the building was subjected to reconstruction, it was quite suitable for a testbed experiment to validate the feasibility and stability of the proposed power line communication. The experiment was conducted over a period of two years at an office room where an automatic sprinkler and electric heating system were available. The electricity was shared with another office on the separate floor and the bill was paid equally. The major feature, which can be considered as the contribution of the implemented PLC system is that the power usages are measured individually with the PLC-based power meter which allowed each room’s electricity charge to be checked and billed separately on an Android app.
Move 1) 3. Design of Monitoring System for Target Building
As in any country, many old buildings in Korea are repaired to be used for 40 to 50 years or even longer since constructing new ones is expensive. Because remodeling old buildings is not only expensive but also generates construction waste, repairing is the preferred alternative in many cases.
The structure cited for the testing of this paper was a steel-concrete building constructed in January 1980. The building located in front of Geumjeong-gu Office in Busan was facing reconstruction in the near future, and we used it as a testbed for two years and verified the safety of power line communication.
The office room we selected for the test had no city gas service, only the electrical heating system. As such, it had the spring cooler that is activated automatically in case of fire caused by an electrical short circuit. It shared the electricity with an accountant’s office on the third floor and paid half of the total electricity bill. The contribution of this paper would be the implementation of a system (power metering) that metered the power line communication and automatically divided the electricity bill for payment with an Android app.
Add 3) One of the success cases of using PLC technology for old buildings can be first found in the PLC testbed service carried out by SK Broadband (ROK) for 100 households in 2017. Their service allowed the users to enjoy an average speed of 100Mbps just by plugging the PLC equipment into a power outlet and it was validated that the speed up to 800Mbps can be achieved with this technology, which is not much different from the 100Mbps high-speed or Max. 1Gbps Giga-internet service currently available. Although the PLC system seemed to be promising after the ROK’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy and Ministry of Information and Communication revised the Radio Waves Act and prepared the PLC National Standard in 2007 to promote and spread power line-based home networks, it was not actually adopted for the domestic high-speed internet services due to the dispute over its stability and oppositions by most of the communication service providers; only a few companies including Samsung and LG Electronics provided the PLC-based home network services. At the same time, Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCOM) also attempted to enter the local home network service business with their own PLC system but failed to achieve its commercialization. SK Broadband explained at that time that they were able to provide their testbed service after securing enough speed and stability close to a gigabyte-based service, which was not possible earlier.
Most of the buildings constructed before 2000 had some limitations when trying to use high-speed internet, internet TV/telephone or WiFi so that LAN cables had to be installed additionally. Also, the demand for LAN cables is increasing recently as the number of households using a multiple number of these devices/equipment is growing rapidly, supporting the economic feasibility of PLC-based systems. SK Broadband is expecting that these systems will play a big role when they attempt to penetrate the niche market targeting old areas/buildings where installation of LAN cables can be costly or difficult [47].
Meanwhile, the ROK’s Geumcheon-gu Office conducted a testbed service for an apartment complex in 2019 to replace its old mechanical power meters with smart meters using PLC equipment. The main point of this project was to allow the residents of Doksan Newtown Branew Apartment Complex to check their own power usages on a real-time basis on an app anytime anywhere through newly installed smart meters. The task of replacing old meters was carried out by an energy company Energynet specializing in the PLC business that focuses on voice-call and data communication systems through existing power lines as a medium. Geumcheon-gu Office expected that the accuracy and efficiency would increase much through remote meter reading without requiring a lot of manpower once the testbed service was implemented. They are also expecting that the data collected from the real-time transformer and power use monitoring systems will be used as big data in the future through an integrated management system. All of these systems will be helpful for the residents to save their power usages which in turn will be returned to them in a form of Ecomileage [48].
- SK Broadband, https://www.mk.co.kr/news/business/view/2017/03/151149/ (In Korean)
- http://m.electimes.com/article.php?aid=1566520662184954010 (In Korean)
Appendix: Abbreviations
PLC: Power Line Communication
SMI: Smart Metering Infrastructure
DR: Demand-Response
HV: High-Voltage
UNB-PLC: Ultra-narrowband Power Line Communication
NB-PLC: NarrowBand Power Line Communication
HIFs: High-Impedance Faults
PLC-AN: PLC-Access Network
PLC-OR: PLC-Opportunistic Routing
MP-PLCA: Multi-Protocol PLC Analyzer
GUI: Graphical User Interface
DCU: Data Concentration Unit
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 1 Report
The changes performed are conducive to an improved manuscript. That said, the paper has not been improved in terms of discussion quality. The conclusion is lacking any critical discussion on the limitations of the study reported. Moreover, the sustainability aspect should be retrieved in the conclusion and packageable knowledge from the study should be readily summarised as recommendations and emphasizing as well research gaps that would warrant future studies.
Author Response
Are the conclusions supported by the results?
( ) (x) ( ) ( )
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The changes performed are conducive to an improved manuscript. That said, the paper has not been improved in terms of discussion quality. The conclusion is lacking any critical discussion on the limitations of the study reported. Moreover, the sustainability aspect should be retrieved in the conclusion and packageable knowledge from the study should be readily summarised as recommendations and emphasizing as well research gaps that would warrant future studies.
Reply ----->
Dear Reviewer
Thank you for reviewing the paper again and we appropriate your comment. The discussion and conclusion parts have been added to enhance the readability so that we respectfully request re-review if possible.
Following your comment, we’ve highlighted the additional or changed part in red whereas the part required to be supplemented, in red.
-----
Add 1) The content presented by the 1st Author Jun-Ho Huh when he was a senior research engineer at SUNCOM Company was about the 3-phase 3-line power line communication system [49] which was installed at a shadow area when building a ship and successfully resolved the communication problem.
Another reason for the transmission rate to drop during actual navigation is due to the noise occurring while conducting power line communications [49]. When the transmission rates were compared between office, land-based testbed, and actual ship [49-50], the rate measured in the office was a little lower than that of the testbed but higher or almost similar to the rate measured aboard. Different from the actual ship the walls of the office were made of cement. This shows that the fading effect can occur in the office as well and the attenuation of electromagnetic waves can be higher when compared with testbed surrounded by steel walls.
This study had continued to develop a monitoring solution for the old homes and completed the testbed experiment, securing the system stability.
Thus, this paper introduced ship PLC-based Legacy-Line Communication (LLC) system construction technology and tested its performance level by conducting a data transmission experiment.
LLC system is a technology to secure a communication line without damaging the exterior of the facility by utilizing the conductive media already being installed in a ship [49], railroad [6] or a building [51-53]. Thus, this technology has the merit of largely reducing the structural changes as well as the time and expense required to design and construct additional lines. One of the typical examples of LLC systems is the Power Line (PL)-based system proposed in this study but the existing telephone lines or copper cables that have been used as a communication line can be used as well [54-56]. Also, the technology utilizing air-conditioning pipes installed all cross the building can be a good candidate even though they are not used as a typical transmission media [52, 57]. Therefore, we expect that the solution proposed in this study would lay a foundation for sustainability research.
Meanwhile, the PLC system requires at least two communication equipment per line to set the master-slave and from the second line, slaves can be added as many as necessary lines so that it is quite economic. In some of the foreign nations where it is difficult to install LAN systems for their houses, many leading network equipment companies manufacture PLC modems and sell the products using Wi-Fi. The PLC systems are useful in the areas where wireless systems are not suitable or installing Ethernet cables is difficult and can be considered as the easiest way of constructing a wired communication network in the decrepit building.
Add 2) Our future research plan is to develop a monitoring system for the smart grid equipment in Southeastern countries and it will be essential to develop a faster PLC-based communication solution at the same time.
[49] Jun-Ho Huh, Taehoon Koh, Kyungryong Seo. "Design of a Shipboard Outside Communication Network and Its Testbed Using PLC: For Safety Management during the Ship Building Process." Processes, MDPI, 6,6, 2018, 1-21.
[50] J-H Huh, Y-S Seo, "Understanding Edge Computing: Engineering Evolution With Artificial Intelligence." IEEE Access 7 (2019): 164229-164245.
[51] H.-S. Kim, J. R. Kim, H. Y. Lee, K. U. Kim, J. S. Huh, J.H. Lee, Y. W. Oh, W. B. Byun, K. Y. Gwak, S. H. Ju, “Signal transmission properties of the inductive coupler using the high permeability magnetic materials,” Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineering, vol. 19. no. 4, pp. 339-343, Apr. 2006.
[52] H. S. Kim C. H. Byun, “Development of IBS network system using copper line of air conditioner,” Mattron Corp., Gyeongnam, Technical Report, 2013.
[53] H.-S. Kim, S. H. Park, S. G. Kang, “Development of communication joint tools for implementing a legacy-line communication system in a train,” Journal of the Korean Institute of Information and Communication Engineering, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 877-887, Apr. 2015.
[54] K. Dostert, Powerline Communications, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.
[55] IEEE Std. 1901, IEEE Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specifications, IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., 2010.
[56] D. Duche and V. Gogate, “Signal attenuation in power-line communication channel,” International Journal of Emerging Trends & Technology in Computer Science, vol.3, no. 2, pp. 123-130, Feb. 2014.
[57] Kim, Hyun-Sik, Seog Geun Kang. "A powerline-based legacy-line communication system for implementation of a communication network in ship." Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering 19.8, 2015, 1831-1838.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
