Creative Commons

The term Semantic Web refers to a version of the Web where information has meaning and it can be shared and reused. Many languages and technologies were developed with that scope but one of the most powerful tools developed are ontologies. Ontologies provide the means to represent knowledge in a structured way and to set links between knowledge items. Many ontologies were developed during the last years dealing with various concepts. One of the most important of these concepts is Energy Management. Energy Management refers to controlling the amount of resources used in order to eliminate the energy consumption wherever is possible. Some of the most common natural energy resources are sun and wind. For that reason, many systems were developed for taking advantage of those resources, such as the solar systems. A Domestic Solar Hot Water System collects the solar energy, and, by processing it, provides to the household hot water. Thus, many households install such systems in order to gain all the benefits from the use of a domestic solar system both for the environment and for the residents. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a web based decision support system that enables the user to choose the appropriate configuration of a Domestic Solar Hot Water System. The implementation is based on Semantic Web technologies and allows users to insert input parameters for proposing the optimal configuration according to specific criteria.