About being and becoming an engineer
Power Hall, Science and Industry Museum
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester has its home in some of the most historically significant buildings of the modern industrial era, including the world’s first passenger railway station – the 1830 terminus of the Liverpool-Manchester railway – and the Grade II-Listed Power Hall, housing one of the UK's largest collections of working steam engines. Working alongside Carmody Groarke Architects, we developed a low-carbon engineering strategy for the restoration and reinvigoration of this museum of British industrialisation and technological growth.
Key information
Architect
Carmody Groarke
Client
Science and Industry Museum Manchester
Value
£8.61M
Year of Completion
2025
Sector
Services
Challenge
The Science and Industry Museum is carrying out a site-wide masterplan for the sensitive restoration of the historic fabric of the museum’s buildings, together with an enhanced visitor orientation, interpretation, and access experience. Sustainability and Net Zero Carbon ambitions are embedded within the scheme.
In 2021, Max Fordham worked closely with the Science and Industry Museum to apply for the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) capital works fund. The application was successful, and the Museum secured £4.3M to support its goal to become Net Zero Carbon by 2033. We are now working with the Museum to replace the 1980s gas-fired steam system that powered the dynamic display of 18th- and 19th-century mill and factory machinery in the Power Hall with a new electric steam boiler and a water source heat pump.
Our project team
Total of 7 people
A low energy, site-wide MEP strategy
The PSDS grant was awarded not only to reduce the carbon impact of the Power Hall’s steam system, but also the other MEP systems of the site as a whole. Our strategy is largely based on electrification, taking advantage of the decarbonisation of nationwide electricity generation.
A new electric steam boiler and distribution system will replace the gas-fired system on a more limited usage policy to reflect a more considered approach to energy consumption. Excess heat will be recovered and low carbon heat will be generated from the aquifer using a water source heat pump (housed in the 1830 Warehouse and providing heating to that building via heaters concealed under the historic railway platforms).
When the steam system isn’t in use, a ground source heat pump system will provide heating to these buildings. An open loop network allows excess steam heat to be rejected to the ground rather than wasted to the atmosphere.
Within the Power Hall, new heating, lighting, glazing and roof insulation will further reduce energy consumption and improve the visitor experience by removing and concealing clumsy modern interventions. A new control system allows the energy and carbon data to be accumulated, analysed, presented, and acted on to further reduce carbon emissions and running costs.
Overall, we expect to reduce the carbon emissions by around 515 tonnes of CO2 per year.
515 tonnes
of CO2 saved per year
£4.3M
funding secured
Quote
"The Power Hall tells the story of the coal-fired industrial revolution and its importance to Manchester. Our goal is to tell the story of the next industrial revolution with green technologies. This also aligns with Manchester City Council’s planning policy to enhance carbon literacy within the population, and where would be a better place to do this than the Power Hall?"
Iain Shaw
BEng MCIBSE
Director, MEP Engineering
Partner
Gallery
Total of 3 images
©Science Museum Group, Jason Lock
© Science Museum Group
© Science Museum Group, Jason Lock
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