Impact of Urban Form at the Block Scale on Renewable Energy Application and Building Energy Efficiency
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper presents the analysis for the potential application of renewable energy in urban residential building clusters, taking into account the influence of urban form at the block scale, as well as a building energy consumption simulation method. Based on real urban building forms and local climate zones, a set of 30 prototype building clusters with different forms was constructed to analyze their potential for renewable energy application and their impact on building energy consumption.
The content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background.
All the cited references are relevant to the research.
The research design, questions, hypotheses and methods are clearly stated.
The conclusions are thoroughly supported by the results presented in the article.
Author Response
Point : This paper presents the analysis for the potential application of renewable energy in urban residential building clusters, taking into account the influence of urban form at the block scale, as well as a building energy consumption simulation method. Based on real urban building forms and local climate zones, a set of 30 prototype building clusters with different forms was constructed to analyze their potential for renewable energy application and their impact on building energy consumption.
The content succinctly described and contextualized with respect to previous and present theoretical background.
All the cited references are relevant to the research.
The research design, questions, hypotheses and methods are clearly stated.
The conclusions are thoroughly supported by the results presented in the article.
Response : We are very grateful to the reviewer for his affirmation and support of our work. It is a great encouragement for us.
Reviewer 2 Report
This study is about the influence of urban form at the block scale on renewable energy application and building energy efficiency in China. The design and structure of the system, as well as the outcomes, were described and explained perfectly. The results represent a good agreement. the topic is suitable for the publication and the work is original and good.
Some notes:
-organize a section for symbols, nomenclature as well as abbreviations.
- There is a lack of numerical results in the abstract and the conclusion.
- clarifying the mathematical model used in this paper would be very significant.
- The title is appropriate but there should be more reasoning included how the purely analytical investigation could fit the application-like title
- What do the authors mean by [Error! Reference source not found.] in line 80.
- Figure 4,6,13 are needed to be replotted.
- literature analysis, bibliography must be enhanced
Need to review grammar in general
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
I have analyzed this promising article about the impact of urban form on renewable energy applications.
The discussion is necessary and exciting because such complete and objective urban studies are rare.
The manuscript is well-crafted and organized. However, there is a significant level of reduction and abstraction about the different architectural typologies, and we need details on the particular that make a living community.
The authors give copious detail about the results of their simulations in graphs and tables.
The simulations with Grasshopper and other software are relatively superficial; for instance, it is evident that the southern facades and roofs are more efficient for PV and other types of solar panels.
The graphic objective approach is satisfactorily documented. Such material makes the research more understandable.
The paper, in general, is satisfactory, although it needs more monitoring or experiments to check the validity of the results.
The conclusions are consistent but perhaps could be slightly more detailed.
Summary of evaluation: This article is interesting from the point of view of urban planning and development; it should be extended to other fast-growing cities and areas in China. It can be published with minor adjustments.
Author Response
- Response to comment: I have analyzed this promising article about the impact of urban form on renewable energy applications. The discussion is necessary and exciting because such complete and objective urban studies are rare. The manuscript is well-crafted and organized. However, there is a significant level of reduction and abstraction about the different architectural typologies, and we need details on the particular that make a living community.
Response: We are very grateful to the reviewer for his affirmation and support of our work. Thank you very much for the reviewer's suggestion on improving the details of the community. After careful research, we reply as follows:
（1） Different from individual buildings, this article focuses on the influence of block form on the application of renewable energy in buildings and the energy efficiency of buildings. By combing the existing literature, we preliminarily identified the influencing factors and quantitative indicators of the block form. Therefore, the simplification and abstraction of individual building types will not have a substantial impact on the research conclusions.
（2）Adding architectural detail information will greatly increase the duration of building energy consumption simulation. Considering the workload of energy consumption simulation for 30 different building groups, it is unrealistic to add too many architectural details.
- Response to comment: The authors give copious detail about the results of their simulations in graphs and tables. The simulations with Grasshopper and other software are relatively superficial; for instance, it is evident that the southern facades and roofs are more efficient for PV and other types of solar panels.
Response: We are very grateful to the reviewer for his affirmation and support of our work. In addition, the main function of software simulation is to incorporate different influencing factors into the process of renewable energy application simulation and building energy consumption simulation, and to quantify the impact of different influencing factors. Taking the power generation simulation of buildings and facades as an example, although the power generation efficiency of roof power generation is obviously higher than that of facade power generation, this paper quantifies the difference in power generation efficiency，and the influence of the shading effect between buildings on the power generation of building facades is analyzed.
- Response to comment: The graphic objective approach is satisfactorily documented. Such material makes the research more understandable. The paper, in general, is satisfactory, although it needs more monitoring or experiments to check the validity of the results. The conclusions are consistent but perhaps could be slightly more detailed. Summary of evaluation: This article is interesting from the point of view of urban planning and development; it should be extended to other fast-growing cities and areas in China. It can be published with minor adjustments.
Response: We are very grateful to the reviewer for his affirmation and support of our work. We have refined the research conclusions. In addition, the need for more monitoring or experiments to check the validity of the results, as well as the suggestion to expand the research content to other cities, will be further investigated in future work. In short, we would like to thank the reviewers again for their affirmation of our work, and some suggestions put forward in the study will also serve as an important reference for future research work.
Reviewer 4 Report
1. Reference [16], [23] not cited inside the text.
2. Table 4. UWG parameter setting- On what basics the values in the table is furnished. Is there any reference for framing the value.
3. In line 263 - How the waste heat discharge rate of air conditioning systems is mentioned as fraction between 0 and 1. Is there any calculation made. How the waste heat discharge rate is measured automobiles, street lighting, and human metabolism. How the heat waste is calculated at different conditions. At what percentage the efficiency of waste heat recovery system is maintained.
4. In line 276 - The use of amenities in each house is different. Therefore the thermal zone for individual house in the building is going to get vary. On what basics simulation times is decided.
5. In Table 5. Building energy simulation parameter setting, - Is there any references you have referred to set the value. On what aspects the value is set?
Author Response
- Response to comment: Reference [16], [23] not cited inside the text.
Response: We are very sorry for our negligence of citing Reference [16], [23] inside the text. We have marked the correct citations in the text.
- Response to comment: Table 4. UWG parameter setting- On what basics the values in the table is furnished. Is there any reference for framing the value.
Response: Special thanks to you for reviewer's good comments. The parameters in the table mainly refer to Literature [9] and the parameters set by the simulation software, and the important parameters set by the simulation software have been explained in the text。
- Response to comment: In line 263 - How the waste heat discharge rate of air conditioning systems is mentioned as fraction between 0 and 1. Is there any calculation made. How the waste heat discharge rate is measured automobiles, street lighting, and human metabolism. How the heat waste is calculated at different conditions. At what percentage the efficiency of waste heat recovery system is maintained.
Response: Both parameters are simulation software setup parameters and have been explained in the text. The waste heat discharge rate of air conditioning systems is not affected by the urban form, and is uniformly set as the software default value；The value of waste heat discharge rate is set according to different building types, refer to the suggestions provided by the software simulation.
- Response to comment: In line 276 - The use of amenities in each house is different. Therefore the thermal zone for individual house in the building is going to get vary. On what basics simulation times is decided.
Response: Different from individual buildings, this article mainly discusses the impact of urban block form on building energy consumption. Considering the acceptability of energy consumption simulation time, A unified simplification is made to the single building model, which has no substantial impact on the research content. In order to fully consider different energy demands such as heating and cooling, the hourly energy consumption data of the building for a whole year is simulated, and a comparative analysis is carried out.
- Response to comment: In Table 5. Building energy simulation parameter setting, - Is there any references you have referred to set the value. On what aspects the value is set?
Response: The parameter value setting is described in detail in 2.4.2 Building energy simulation, which is mainly derived from the requirements of relevant standards. And consider different aspects such as building envelope, energy-using facilities, and operating status.
We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes in the manuscript. These changes will not influence the content and framework of the paper. And here we did not list the changes but marked in red in revised paper.
We appreciate for Reviewers’ warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval.
Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
