Shower enclosures
The enclosure is private when the power is off
A frameless glass shower is specified for light and for the room it gives back. What it does not give is privacy, and the usual answers — obscured glass, a curtain, a blind that lives in a wet room — undo the reason the glass was clear in the first place.
Switchable glass gives the enclosure both states. And in a bathroom the choice of product is not a preference: normal mode is frosted with no power, so the enclosure is private during a power cut, private if the transformer fails, and private if nobody ever touches the switch.
This is the room reverse mode is wrong for
Reverse mode — clear with no power — is the right answer on a window, a glazed door or a boardroom partition, because those are clear most of the day and the unit then draws power only for the minutes it is private. Run the same logic in a shower and it inverts: the enclosure would be clear every time the power failed.
| PDLC — normal mode | PNLC — reverse mode | |
|---|---|---|
| With no power | Private | Clear |
| In a power cut | Stays private | Goes clear |
| Power drawn in the private state | None | < 0.5 W/sq ft |
| Light transmission, clear | 90% film · 88–91% glass | 90% film · 91% glass |
| Haze in the private state, film | 95% | 94% |
| Parallel light transmission, glass | 80% clear · 7% private | 80% clear · 7% private |
| Suits a shower enclosure | Yes — the default | No |
PDLC is also the cheaper and the more mature of the two. For once the correct specification and the cheaper one are the same specification. The full comparison is on PDLC against PNLC, and every measured value is in the technical reference.
What a bathroom asks that a partition does not
The edge is a detail, not an assumption
A switchable panel is a laminated assembly, and a laminate edge in a wet enclosure is detailed rather than left to the fixings. How the edge is protected, and which edges sit inside the wet zone at all, is agreed on the shop drawing before the panel is made.
Where the wiring leaves
Every panel has a busbar and a tail, and in a bathroom that tail wants to leave at a head or a jamb rather than at a sill. The exit is chosen with the enclosure detail, not after it.
The electrical side is a trade
The panel runs at low voltage from an isolation transformer. The supply to that transformer is mains work in a bathroom, which is a licensed electrician and the local code — it is not a plug-in appliance.
Safety glazing, as everywhere else
A shower enclosure is a hazardous location under the code. The laminated switchable products carry SGCC 9894 and are made from low-iron glass, heat-treated or fully tempered; the certificate is available in full.
A shower panel is nowhere near the limit
PDLC laminated glass is made to 70 × 165 in, and PDLC film to 72 × 165 in. A typical enclosure — a fixed panel and a door, or three sides of a walk-in — sits inside that with room to spare, so the enclosure is divided where the design wants a joint rather than where the product forces one.
The same product answers the bathroom window, which is usually the other half of the problem. Film goes onto glazing that is already in the building; laminated glass is made for the opening. Both are covered on the residential page.
Common questions
PDLC is specified for bathrooms and shower enclosures, and normal mode is the right default there because the panel is frosted with no power. What needs detailing is the edge of the laminate and the route the wiring takes out of the enclosure, both of which are agreed at technical review before the panel is fabricated.
Film is applied to existing glazing, so a retrofit is possible where the glass is sound and one face is accessible and dry. Whether film or a new laminated panel is right for a particular enclosure depends on the fixings and on which face the film would sit — send photographs with the sizes and it is answered directly.
A PDLC enclosure stays frosted. That is the unpowered state of the product, not a battery or a fail-safe circuit — no power at all means the private state, which is why normal mode is the one specified for bathrooms.
PDLC laminated switchable glass runs from about $115 per square foot and PDLC film from about $55, before the transformer, the control and installation. The ranges and what moves them are set out on the pricing page.
Condensation on a cold glass surface is a property of the bathroom rather than of the switchable layer, and it behaves as it does on any glazed enclosure — ventilation and heating are what change it. The switchable layer is inside the laminate, so nothing in the frosted state is affected by water on the surface.
Built from the same six products
Doors
The one format where the glass moves, which makes the wiring the detail rather than the panel. Internal doors, entrances and glazed leaves in a partition run.
Read more
Skylights and overhead glazing
Overhead, the problem is usually the sun rather than the neighbours. DLC moves between a tinted transparent state and a deep dark one, which is glare and solar gain rather than privacy.
Read more
Curved glass
The curve is in the glass; the switchable layer follows it. Curved walls, columns and radiused partitions, made to the geometry rather than picked from a list of sizes.
Read more
Railings and balustrades
Two projects in service — a New York waterfront terrace and a North Palm Beach pool deck. Reverse mode holds the view with no power drawn, and frosts for the hour it is wanted.
Read more
Rear-projection surfaces
In its private state the panel is a diffusing surface, which is what a rear-projection screen is. The partition that gives a meeting room privacy is the screen it presents onto.
Read more
Insulated units and facades
A switchable layer inside the insulating unit, on the exterior envelope. What it changes for solar gain, HVAC load and the elevation.
Read moreSend the opening, not the product code
Sizes, the shapes, whether the glass is already in the building and which state it should hold with no power. That is enough for a price and a lead time. Pompano Beach, Florida; (833) 333-8556.