Review Reports - Smart Design of Portable Indoor Shading Device for Visual Comfort—A Case Study of a College Library

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Last 3 paragraphs in section 2.2. 'Louver Shaped Shading Device' should be deleted.

There are a number of reference errors in the text which should be corrected (see for example lines 338-9).

Author Response

Reply to Comments on

Manuscript APPLSCI-1451512:

“Smart design of portable indoor shading device for visual comfort-a case study of a college library”

Reviewer 1’s Comments

Last 3 paragraphs in section 2.2. 'Louver Shaped Shading Device' should be deleted.

There are a number of reference errors in the text which should be corrected (see for example lines 338-9).

Response:

We appreciate the reviewer for his/her approval and valuable comments.

These comments are very helpful for us to improve the quality and presentation of this manuscript. The previous manuscript has been carefully revised according to this reviewer’s comments, the modifications in the revised manuscript.

The last paragraphs in section 2.2 are deleted according to reviewer’s suggestion.

The reference errors in the text are corrected according to the Reference List and Citations Style Guide for MDPI Journals as well.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have made a study of an intelligent design of a portable interior shading device for thermal comfort in a university library.
The article is very well structured and I congratulate the authors for their work. There are studies on thermal comfort in lighting that are quite novel.
I have some issues and questions that I would like to raise with the authors and I would like them to be clarified by the authors to improve the quality of the article.

1. The authors state that with the development of architectural technology, the use of floor-to-ceiling windows has become widespread. The resulting problem is that more and more students and office workers suffer from direct sunlight while working in specific areas. To justify in a reasoned manner this study through the proposed design improves lighting comfort.
2. In what way do the authors consider that the lighting environment simulations provide a new customised design to block direct sunlight from the working area.
3. How the authors design a portable, liftable sunshade, which allows users to control the height and angle of the sunshade via a mobile phone application. According to which parameters can it be adjusted?
4. The authors talk about simulation to achieve thermal comfort. Is this thermal comfort related to passive solar heating?
5.The proposed new product is interesting. It would be interesting if the authors could explain better the functioning of the internal sensors and the single-chip microcomputer to collect and process the data.
6. It would be good for the authors to evaluate the usefulness of the data collected by the proposed design in housing its other uses.
7. The introduction should be reinforced with impact articles and discussions of the results.
Here are some articles that should be mentioned in the state of the art and discussions and that will reinforce the quality of the article.
Arai, R., Furukawa, S., Hidaka, Y., Komiyama, H., & Yasuda, T. (2019). High-Performance Organic Energy-Harvesting Devices and Modules for Self-Sustainable Power Generation under Ambient Indoor Lighting Environments. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11(9), 9259-9264. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b00018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b00018
Freitag, M., Teuscher, J., Saygili, Y., Zhang, X., Giordano, F., Liska, P., ... Hagfeldt, A. (2017). Dye-sensitized solar cells for efficient power generation under ambient lighting. Nature Photonics, 11(6), 372-378. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2017.60
Baeza Moyano, D., Baeza Moyano, S., Gómez López, M., Salcedo Aznal, A., & González Lezcano, R. A. (2020). Nominal risk analysis of the blue light from LED luminaires in indoor lighting design. Optik, 223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.165599
Srikanth, M., Bala, K., & Durand, F. (2015). Computational rim illumination of dynamic subjects using aerial robots. Computers and Graphics (Pergamon), 52, 142-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2015.03.007
Moyano, D. B., Fernández, M. S. J., & Lezcano, R. A. G. (2020, May 1). Towards a sustainable indoor lighting design: Effects of artificial light on the emotional state of adolescents in the classroom. Sustainability (Switzerland). MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104263

Author Response

Reply to Comments on

Manuscript APPLSCI-1451512:

“Smart design of portable indoor shading device for visual comfort-a case study of a college library”

Reviewer 2’s Comments

The authors have made a study of an intelligent design of a portable interior shading device for thermal comfort in a university library. The article is very well structured and I congratulate the authors for their work. There are studies on thermal comfort in lighting that are quite novel. I have some issues and questions that I would like to raise with the authors and I would like them to be clarified by the authors to improve the quality of the article.

Response:

We would like to thank the reviewer for his/her approval and valuable comments.

These comments are very helpful for us to improve the quality and presentation of this paper. The previous manuscript has been carefully revised according to the reviewer’s comments.

Below are the detailed responses to the comments item by item.

The authors state that with the development of architectural technology, the use of floor-to-ceiling windows has become widespread. The resulting problem is that more and more students and office workers suffer from direct sunlight while working in specific areas. To justify in a reasoned manner this study through the proposed design improves lighting comfort.

Response:

We sincerely appreciate the reviewer for this valuable comment.

In what way do the authors consider that the lighting environment simulations provide a new customised design to block direct sunlight from the working area.

Response:

We are very grateful to the reviewer for this valuable comment.

Different from previous studies using subjective product evaluation, we applied lighting environment simulations that is an objective evaluation tool to assessment the effectiveness and availability of the proposed product. Since the most uncomfortable aspect of the library light environment is glare, and we have used simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of our design to reduce glare.

How the authors design a portable, liftable sunshade, which allows users to control the height and angle of the sunshade via a mobile phone application. According to which parameters can it be adjusted?

Response:

Thank the reviewer very much for this valuable comment.

The most significant problem caused by direct sunlight is that glare makes the human eyes feel uncomfortable and unable to work properly, so the simulation verification section is proving whether the device we designed can effectively solve the glare problem. The simulation results in that section show that in our selected case, the library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, most of the seats by the west window have a high DGP index during certain times of the spring, autumn and winter seasons, indicating that the human eye feels unbearable glare at those times; and after the installation of the device we designed, the DGP index was reduced significantly to below 0.35 and reached the acceptable range, indicating that the human eye cannot detect the glare at this time. This comparison verifies the effectiveness of the device in solving the glare problem.

The authors talk about simulation to achieve thermal comfort. Is this thermal comfort related to passive solar heating?

Response:

We are very grateful to the reviewer for this valuable comment.

Sorry for the confusion. Our study mainly focused on improving visual comfort instead of thermal comfort. The device is designed to solve the problem of glare caused by direct sunlight during working. As a result, the study is not above passive solar heating. To avoid further confusion, we have revised our title as “Smart design of portable indoor shading device for visual comfort—a case study of a college library”. We have also avoided the use to “thermal comfort” throughout the manuscript.

The proposed new product is interesting. It would be interesting if the authors could explain better the functioning of the internal sensors and the single-chip microcomputer to collect and process the data.

Response:

We appreciate the reviewer for this valuable comment.

In our experimental setting, we use the single-chip microcomputer Arduino and connect it to several sensors, such as photosensitive sensors，CO2 sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and total solar radiation intensity sensors. We designed a program which allows the single-chip computer to put the environment data into storage for further evaluation of the environment.

With the sensors we put inside the device, it can automatically adjust the height of the sunshade curtain to ensure shading effectiveness. The design can automatically change the lifted height of the sunshade curtain according to environment parameters collected by sensors inside the device, helping it to keep a specific area covered. According to the users’ personal needs, the device can be switched on or off on the mobile phone application.

As mentioned in 4.2, In the propsed product structure, a customized shell comprises the main part, which can be raised and lowered, and has a small volume and a light weight. The photosensitive sensor, temperature and humidity sensor, and total solar radiation intensity sensor are integrated into the 3D-printed shell of the lifting part, and are connected to a single-chip microcomputer through a connecting rod. The single-chip microcomputer is integrated in the shell of the 3D-printed main body, and is electrically connected to an LED screen to display the information. The main body is placed on a surface that needs to be shaded. As the sensor senses the light environment, the light environmental data will be displayed on the LED screen. The program written in the single-chip microcomputer processes the light environment data and controls the movement of the motor, so that the shading film and the flexible OLED screen rise together to achieve the shading effect. The light environment data are synchronously transmitted by the single-chip microcomputer to the LAN for processing storage. All sensors are highly integrated in the housing to ensure the uniformity of the product’s appearance. Each part is customized by 3D printing, which has high applicability and adaptability. The product is light and easy to carry. The intelligent control of each sensor ensures adaptation to different areas. This means that the product can be applied to different light environments and change automatically according to the specific characteristics.

It would be good for the authors to evaluate the usefulness of the data collected by the proposed design in housing its other uses.

Response:

We appreciate the reviewer for this constructive comment.

The data collected by the proposed design shows the specific information of the environment during different time period. As our design is used in college library, we can know which place of the library is suffering most from direct sunlight and which place has the highest concentration of CO2 in the air. As a result, we can rearrange the placement of our products and take other actions to lower the concentration of CO2. In brief, the data we collected can provide us with a bigger picture of the whole area covered by our products.

The introduction should be reinforced with impact articles and discussions of the results.
Here are some articles that should be mentioned in the state of the art and discussions and that will reinforce the quality of the article.
Arai, R., Furukawa, S., Hidaka, Y., Komiyama, H., & Yasuda, T. (2019). High-Performance Organic Energy-Harvesting Devices and Modules for Self-Sustainable Power Generation under Ambient Indoor Lighting Environments. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 11(9), 9259-9264. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b00018. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b00018
Freitag, M., Teuscher, J., Saygili, Y., Zhang, X., Giordano, F., Liska, P., ... Hagfeldt, A. (2017). Dye-sensitized solar cells for efficient power generation under ambient lighting. Nature Photonics, 11(6), 372-378. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2017.60
Baeza Moyano, D., Baeza Moyano, S., Gómez López, M., Salcedo Aznal, A., & González Lezcano, R. A. (2020). Nominal risk analysis of the blue light from LED luminaires in indoor lighting design. Optik, 223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.165599
Srikanth, M., Bala, K., & Durand, F. (2015). Computational rim illumination of dynamic subjects using aerial robots. Computers and Graphics (Pergamon), 52, 142-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2015.03.007
Moyano, D. B., Fernández, M. S. J., & Lezcano, R. A. G. (2020, May 1). Towards a sustainable indoor lighting design: Effects of artificial light on the emotional state of adolescents in the classroom. Sustainability (Switzerland). MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104263

Response:

We sincerely appreciate the reviewer for mentioning these important and relevant literatures. After carefully reading the literatures suggested by the reviewer, we reorganized introduction for futher discussion.