Electricity Museum - House of Light - Madeira Acessível By Wheelchair

The Electricity Museum “Casa da Luz”, is a Company Museum (EEM- Madeira Electricity Company), which is installed in the space of the former Thermal Power Plant of Funchal, inaugurated in 1897, the then Madeira Electric Lighting Company Limited, the first electricity concessionaire in Madeira.

After several changes, in 1949, the Municipalized Electricity Services will emerge, moving for the first time to a public entity a strategic sector. In 1974 the public company (EEM) will be created, responsible for the production of transportation and distribution of electricity in the Madeira Archipelago. The Thermal Power Plant of Funchal was only permanently deactivated in 1989, having since hosted the Electricity Museum-“Casa da Luz”.

Museum presents an exhibition on various thematic areas. A first shows various types of lighting used in the City of Funchal and its urban furniture, from the first examples of olive oil lamps to the lamps of today, under the title “Lights of Funchal”.

A second thematic area presents us with an evolutionary history of electrification in the archipelago, under the title “A century of Electricity”, with the presence of various machinery, with the two main forms of electricity production: thermal and hydraulics. A processing post was also installed at the exhibition site called the second ship and connected it to an electricity pole. This space was also completed with maquetas of several power plants, as well as urban and rural power grids, as well as a three-dimensional orohydrographic chart that synthesizes the gradual effort of electrification of the archipelago.

A third area presents us with a didactic sense the exhibition “energy sources”, primary and renewable, on wind and solar energy, as well as an area dedicated to science and technology, equipped with interactive equipment and multimedia software. In this space there are computers with software suitable for the theme, (virtual reality helmet), plasma ball, (Faraday cage), fiber optics and multimedia kiosk, where you can explore the CD-rom of the Museum. It has a temporary exhibition area, a documentation center, auditorium, shop and a cafeteria. It is also prepared with all safety and movement standards for disabled visitors.

The museum is based in the adapted facilities of the former Thermal Power Station of Funchal, inaugurated in 1870.It was in this sense that, on November 24, 1997, in celebration of the centenary of the introduction of electricity in RAM, EEM inaugurated the Casa da Luz Museum.