Comparative Analysis of the Effect of the Evolution of Energy Saving Regulations on the Indoor Summer Comfort of Five Homes on the Coast of the Basque Country

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Reviewer Report 

 

The paper has been conceptualised meticulously and it has great potential to contribute to the ASHRAE Global Thermal Comfort Database II - link is here - https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.6078/D1F671

 

There is no doubt that this study is novel and it demonstrates a roadmap to other scholars’ on the development of adaptive thermal comfort theory. Therefore the paper is required minor modifications to boost its scientific soundness and visibility. I outline my recommendations as follow.

 

1. Graphical abstract should be included to increase the visibility of this study. 

 

2. Re-write Abstract to include knowledge gap, methods used and the key results that are the contribution to knowledge.

 

3. A nomenclature page, including list of abbreviations should be given.

 

4. The sub-section 1.2 (Evolution of the national energy efficiency regulations for buildings in Spain) should be rewritten. The literature review should either be a conventional discursive review or a systematic review with the research title reflecting the approach taken. Regardless, it would be useful to know the query terms and which online journal databases were used to identify the relevant literature.

 

5. The authors should use vosviewer data visualisation tool to increase the credibility of the newly written literature section. Here is the link for your reference - https://www.vosviewer.com

 

6. In Sub-section 2.1 (Descriptives of case studies), presents reasons for statistical evidence of the high-density residential blocks used being ‘nationally representative’. Explain how the sample is random and not just chance. 

 

7. In Sub-section 2.1 (Descriptives of case studies), the method should give an honest appraisal of how they were chosen and reference the work of others who have developed statistically representative datasets, therefore the discussion should critique the ability to extrapolate data to other representative samples. It should also consider the merits of the chosen approach as it may indicate variance in the local area. 

 

8.  In Discussions section, please design a flow digram to demonstrate the main research outputs gathered from the statistical analysis.

 

9. Limitations section should be added and the pros and cons of using the statistical analysis and the data mining process should be clearly outlined. Additionally, future works and impacts should be discussed.

 

10. Relate your conclusions to your research questions. 

 

Author Response

see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Very interesting approach concerning the effect of the evolution of energy saving regulations on the thermal comfort in the summer period, including the comparative analysis of the 5 different homes. Very actual, including the actual policies and national strategies in Europe. I would like to emphasize the originality of the approach since it is not well addressed in the Introduction. The analysis covers the background of the regulations concerning thermal comfort, the current state, and the evolution of national energy efficiency regulations in Spain with comparative policy analysis. The authors have clearly stated identified gaps and need of such analysis and future perspectives. I would like to highlight the clarity and the graphical representations that are included in the analysis.

But I propose that author rewrite the introduction, to make it concise or to have two sections as Literature background. In the end of Introduction section, the brief content of the paper should be given.

A literature review covered all the necessary parts and finding in similar fields, I find it very clear and concise. The provided references are current and reliable, including the scientific background. The motivation is quite strong and well-presented.

The Discussion section is well structured, concise, including all the conclusions that are stated during the research. It is necessary to highlight the novelty of such analysis. I would like that Authors use their results to point out the scientific contribution of their research.

Overall impression of the paper is that approach is quite innovative, representation of the results as well as the main findings of the presented study are clear presented. It would be very beneficial that authors provide a comparison discussing the results of other similar analysis.

I have enjoyed reading your article. 

Author Response

See attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Interesting and topical article. 

It is recommended to complete a nomenclature of used physiocal magnitudes and their units. Also a list of abbreviations is recommended. 

Figure 7 is poorly legible. 

Author Response

please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf