Miami Dade College fits a business analytics lab with PriWatt glass
A classroom that is a screen when the lesson needs one
Miami Dade College is the largest institution in the Florida College System, and its Wolfson Campus sits in downtown Miami among the financial and government blocks. The business analytics lab was refurbished from January 2020 and was meant to be one of the rooms the building shows people.
What went in was 205 square feet of PriWatt switchable glass: enough to enclose the room, and enough to project onto.
The numbers, because this project has them
| On this project | |
|---|---|
| Switchable area | 205 sq ft |
| Transformer | UL-certified 48 VAC, 300 W |
| Rated coverage of that unit | Up to 250 sq ft |
| Installation | A couple of days, by a certified installer |
| Refurbishment began | January 2020 |
The second and third lines are the ones worth copying down, because transformer sizing is the part of a switchable installation that people leave until last and should settle first. A panel draws current only while it is switched, and it draws it continuously in that state, so the unit is sized to the total area on the circuit and not to the number of panels. At 205 sq ft this room fits inside one 300 W unit with margin; at 260 it would have needed a second, and where that unit sits is a coordination question with the electrical contractor, not an afterthought.
Isolation transformers covers how they are specified and where they go.
Why a teaching room gets two things from one wall
Supervised, then closed
A lab on a circulation route is visible from it, right most of the time and wrong during an assessment or a private conversation. The wall does both without a blind appearing in the room.
The screen is the wall
Switched, the panel is a 94–95% haze diffusing surface. That is a rear-projection screen. Nothing is dropped from the ceiling and nothing is wheeled in.
Daylight in the closed state
The private state scatters light instead of stopping it, so a room that is closed to view is still lit by its glazing.
The projection is the part that surprises people. It is not a separate product. A PDLC panel goes private because the liquid-crystal droplets inside it sit at random angles and scatter light in every direction — the same property that makes it look like frost makes it a diffuser. Rear projection onto it works in daylight with moderate ambient light, which is the condition a classroom is actually in. The mechanism and its limits are on rear-projection surfaces.
What to settle before a teaching space is glazed this way
- Total switchable area on each circuit — it sets the transformer, and 250 sq ft is one 300 W unit
- Which state the room holds with no power: a teaching room is usually wanted transparent, which points at reverse mode rather than the normal-mode glass used here
- Who switches it, and from where — a wall plate inside the room, or a control the department holds
- Whether the glazing is in a location where code requires safety glazing, which is a property of the panel and not of the switchable layer
- Where the projector goes, if the wall is also the screen, since rear projection puts it on the far side from the class
The second one is the decision that costs money to change later and nothing to get right now. A room glazed to be looked into, closed occasionally, wants reverse mode: clear with no power, private only while it is switched.
Specified on this project
PriWatt PDLC switchable glass
The switchable layer laminated inside the panel, made to the opening. Private unpowered.
Education facilities
Classrooms, labs and training rooms that are supervised and, at other times, closed.
Rear-projection surfaces
A switched panel is a 94–95% haze diffusing surface, which is what a projection screen is.
A project like this one
A classroom, a lab or a training room that has to be supervised, closed and projected onto. PriWatt manufactures in Pompano Beach, Florida. Every quote is worked from the project’s own drawings, so send dimensions. A photograph with the sizes written on it does the same job. Earlier than that, book the call.
