School projectors are a great learning tool, but they aren’t worth the plastic shell they are made of if your students can’t see the images.
Having a higher lumen rating in your school classroom projectors is essential. One of the projector’s primary adversaries is ambient light that assaults your classroom from the windows, the ceiling lights, and anything else that generally shines into your room.
Here’s a look at why lumens are important for a school projector.
So What Are These Lumens Anyway?
Before we get too deep into why lumens are an essential part of having good projectors, it’s important to answer a fundamental question: what are lumens?
Lumens are a measure of the total amount of light that’s visible coming from some kind of light source. The lumen measurement only refers to visible light.
Lumens are needed because they measure the brightness a projector emits. The lumens in a projector help combat this effect. Known as ANSI lumens, a good projector for a classroom has a high lumen count.
ANSI Lumens Are What You Want To Look For
Your school projector ought to have a high lumen count. Generally, any space with a lot of ambient light needs a projector to compete with that light. Suitable projectors deliver better-quality images if they have more lumens.
ANSI lumens are what you need to look for in your school projector. On its own, a lumen measures a light source’s observed amount of power. ANSI lumens measures a more rigid definition by the American National Standards Institute.
It would be best to look for ANSI lumens in your school projector choice because that number gives you a much more accurate representation of the light’s brightness. The ANSI stamp means that your projector has undergone all the necessary tests in accordance with industry standards.
A school projector probably needs a rating of at least 3000 ANSI lumens. With at least 3000 ANSI lumens, you can beat the ambient light competing for attention when it’s time to use the school projector.
Lesser Ambient Light Concerns
If you don’t have much ambient light within your classroom, you might not need such a high ANSI lumen rating for your projector.
Depending on the brightness of your room, you could get away with something that has an 800 rating. Such a number is usually more appropriate for rooms with low to medium light.
Ambient light is usually a direct result of many windows or bright lights, like those typically found in classrooms. If you’re one of those educators that don’t have the right kind of light in their classroom, you probably won’t need a projector with high ANSI lumen numbers.
What About the 500?
Maybe you’ve seen those projectors that only have about 500 ANSI lumens. Have you ever wondered if that would work in your classroom?
Many outdoor projectors are actually around 500 ANSI lumens. Something as low as 500 is much more effective in low lighting conditions. It works in situations when light is virtually absent.
If you live most of your day in a bright classroom, though, you’ll need something with a much higher lumen count.
Distance Matters When Figuring Out the Lumens Required
Another factor to consider when looking into your school projector needs is the distance between your projector and the screen. Depending on your classroom size, you might need to adjust your lumen needs.
Generally speaking, bigger classrooms will need projectors with a higher lumen rating. If there is more distance between your projector and projector screen, it will require more lumens to project a distinct, clear image for your students.
Extrapolating off the principle of the inverse-square law, it’s easy to see that light intensity decreases naturally with distance.
Using such a complex mathematical principle to determine that you need more lumens if you have a big room might be extreme, but it helps get the point across.
Screen Size Matters, Too
You need to consider more than just distance when picking your classroom projector. The best projectors that don’t fit the screen size will function like the worst projectors.
A good rule of thumb is that you’ll require more lumens according to the size of your projector screen.
Big education projectors need more lumens because higher lumen numbers are necessary to deliver quality images. Such a rule applies when there’s lots of competing ambient light and when you need to project on ample space.
More Lumens Are Better for Your Daytime Classroom
A bright classroom means you have a lot of ambient light that your projector needs to compete with to do its job. More ambient light – like that coming from main windows and bright ceiling lights – means you need more lumens for your projector.
The idea of a brighter projector with more lumens would apply regardless. Whether you’re in a school room or a very bright office, more lumens are necessary for your school projector when there are many bright lights.
Higher lumen numbers mean your projector for school can deliver better quality images despite the competing ambient light. So if your daytime classroom has lots of natural light seeping through the windows or bright lights shining above, you’ll need a high ANSI lumen rating.
Bottom Line: You Need a Bright Projector for a Bright Classroom
ANSI lumens are a standardized measurement used in explaining the brightness of equipment such as a school projector. Higher lumens are good and equate to a brighter projector.
Projectors with a higher ANSI lumen rating are ideal for classrooms with lots of ambient light. With higher ANSI lumens, your bright classroom won’t compete with the brightness and image quality of a projector. Higher lumens also help overcome distance and projector screen size.
Overall, educators benefit from having projectors with a high ANSI lumen rating, and that’s why lumens are important for a school projector. Wouldn’t you agree? Let us know what you think in the comments below!