rant! teachers and projectors!!!!!

[neon]

Came in today at 8:30 noticed a projector on in same classroom regular offender of leaving projector on when not in use, usually i just turn it off and roll my eyes but today i decided to leave a not asking if she could turn it off when not in use, polite as can be. Got a reply to my note telling me it needs to be on becasue she has a meeting then is on duty and the kids are in before her and because i turned it off I created total chaos in her room?

The projector is already on its second bulb and has clocked way more hours then any other projector in school, feel like running a massive extension lead to my office so I can dictate when it can and cannot be switched on!!!!!!!!

 

Anyone else have problems like this?

[Edu-IT]

Who pays for the bulbs?

 

Perhaps you should tell her what it costs to replace a bulb and how the lamp life is reduced because she cannot wait 30 seconds for the projector to turn on while the kids are getting their books and pencil cases out.

 

Do it in a chart with bright colours.

[neon]

The ICT budget pays for the bulbs! It really annoys me and to get a stropy not back has just capped it! unbelievable, for "clever" poeple they really do amaze me...

[Edu-IT]

The ICT budget pays for the bulbs! It really annoys me and to get a stropy not back has just capped it! unbelievable, for "clever" poeple they really do amaze me...

Do you have an eco person in school? Could raise it with them. Also your burser and explain that it's costing you hundreds of pounds extra a year through this.

 

Or, get something written in place that states that she's got to buy bulbs out her department budget if she goes over the allocated amount of bulbs in X amount of time.

[hullpete]

Have u got a networkable projector ? If so you could control the on and off times via software

[round2it]

unless it costs them you are fighting a loosing battle

[flyinghaggis]

I'd have suggested trying one of those timer plugs so it would kill power at certain times of day (say 5pm until 7am). The problem is that the projectors ideally need the fan to contuinie running to cool down the bulb after it's been turned off for 5 minutes so it would probably do more harm than good.

 

I agree though it's quite frustrating especially when staff leave them on over the weekend and you start working out how much those 60 hours of wasted run-time cost. As other have suggested you need to attribute printer/bulb running costs to each department and not central IT expenditure.

[sippo]

Charge the bulb to the department, then see how quickly she turns the projector off.

[neon]

the projector is not networked, unfortunatly, im actually really annoyed because all i am trying to do is save money and I get comments and looks aswell as stroppy notes.

Anyone got a formulae or way of working out running costs for a projector?

 

Simply bulb cost/hours it will last for + origional projector cost?

[SteveAJones71]

So what make and model is it? I know many newer models allow for an 'instant off' thus making your idea of the timer switch more than possible.

[mb2k01]

This is exactly the reason that we charge bulm replacements to departments as consumable items.

[neon]

epson emp s4

already on its second bulb, installed along with another 2. Thye comparison in lamp hours is amazin, I have looked this morning, 1 of them is in a year 1 classroom and is currently on 360 hours(first bulb) the one in question is in a year 4 class and has clocked 490 hours on its second bulb! crazy!

Trying to put together something to explain how bad it is?

[neon]

The problem in a primary school is that although the teacher is using the bulb it has nothing to do with the department as she is teaching generally...

[p858snake]

Can you control how fast it shuts it self/the lamp off after it looses connection/input? If it has that feature you could probably do something like nircmd to remotely put her computer into power saving mode.... Edited March 22, 2010 by p858snake

[Hightower]

The running cost is going to be something like:

 

(Cost of bulb / Number of hours expected from it) + (Cost of projector / Number of hours expected out of it)

 

For example, a projector that cost £500 and lasts for 10,000 hours before problems start (through age etc) would be:

 

500 / 10000 = 5p per hour for the projector use

 

Then if the bulb costs £300 and you expect 2000 hours out of it:

 

300 / 2000 = 15p per hour for the bulb use

 

That's a total of 20p per hour (in this example). Obviously you could stick some electricity costs on that, and also costs to get it cleaned (if you do that at your school).

 

Then you can use this to say something like "by leaving the projector on over the weekend (total of 65 hour at most schools) you have just cost the school £13. Do this every weekend over a year and the cost to the school is £507 (not including holiday time, just term time).

 

I hope my maths is correct on this, and if it is you can see that the cost pretty quickly adds up.

[hullpete]

Don't Epsom s4 have the sliding shutter on the front ? Maybe an idea depending how high it's mounted ti ask her to at least slide the shutter across to cut the bulb out

[SteveAJones71]

The Epson EMP-S4 features 'instant power off' which means that it should be able to fairly saely turned off instantly via a timer switch (though please verify before trying!), also this model features a USB port which allows the use of ESC/VP21 commands to 'remotely', amongst other things, turn the projector off.

 

A little software utility I have wrote enables at set times for a messge to be displayed to the user to gently remind them to turn the projector off; I have also considered the possibility of writing a screen saver utility that would utilise the ESC/VP21 commands to automatically shutdown the projectors during extended 'non-use' periods.

[LeMarchand]

I have similar problems: some staff even complain if (on those projectors where it is possible) I activate the "auto off" function. Apparently they need the projectors on showing the same thing for over 1/2 hour at a time, even though the children will lose concentration if it takes more than a couple of minutes to fix a problem.

 

The worst offender uses "picture mute" because the projector "takes too long to come on otherwise" (a minute or two) and then wonders why her projector(s) wear out and get through bulbs fastest. Of course, it's always my fault that they break down...

 

I feel your pain.

[laserblazer]

Just emailed your sums to our Bursar.

[SteveBentley]

A little software utility I have wrote enables at set times for a messge to be displayed to the user to gently remind them to turn the projector off; I have also considered the possibility of writing a screen saver utility that would utilise the ESC/VP21 commands to automatically shutdown the projectors during extended 'non-use' periods.

 

How about making that work the other way round - a message pops up asking them to confirm that they are still using it, and if it's not cancelled after a set period it switches off. A bit like Sky boxes do nowadays.

[neon]

Thank you for that, have also added increased number of hours on the lamp/bulb = an increased need for cleaning costing my time and the increased amount of lamp/bulb changes costing my time, wack it together witht the stroppy note and invoice from the bursar from new lamp costs. Show it to head hopefully something will be said.

 

If not I feel a timer and a very strict check up system

[neon]

have never used the usb, does it have to connect to the teachers laptop? sounds like a good idea though.

[SteveAJones71]

Yeah the USB should connect to their laptops. Are the projectors ceiling mounted though, you may need USB extenders to connect if they are?

[neon]

they are but what if they just dont plug it in? wouldnt take them long to work out how to stop the new messages?

[p858snake]

Um should the children even be in the classroom unsupervised.....?