How much should I charge per page to set up a community printer in my dorm?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
1

Hello everyone,

As some of you may have seen, I have a handful of frustrations with UCI that left me disappointed after my first quarter. One of these things happens to be access to printers on campus.

So, I’ve decided to buy a printer, and to set up a private wireless network for my dorm in order to allow my housemates to have quick and easy access to a printer right at home. The question is, how much should I charge per page to keep this setup sustainable? I’m not trying to make any money, and I can eat the cost of the printer, but I need to charge enough to buy paper and ink as needed. If anyone has any wisdom or prior experience with this let me know!

I’m excited to get this setup and running because I think it will help make dorming a better experience for everyone.

2

Find out how many pages a container of ink can print. Add the cost of the ink and the cost of buying that many pages, and divide by how many pages that is.

3

Add 10% for the convenience you are offering and the inconvenience you will incur when someone wants to print at 2 am.

4

Sticking to BW? Color cartridges get tricky.

You could start with 5c a pg the first time round and see when the cartridge runs out if that is enough?

5

The public library where I live charges 10 cents per page. I think that is a reasonable price.

6

Well, I just ran the idea by my RA and she says that she can provide free paper and ink through the housing office supply budget. So, it looks like if I provide the printer, our dorm can get access to free printing right from our rooms.

I’m super excited to do this for my housemates. I’m going to setup a wireless LAC network and registration system so that all the residents can print anonymously as needed, but also so that only the residents of our dorm have access to this specific printer.