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Application that automatically tracks amount of active time spent at the computer

We just equiped a school with new computers, runnning Windows 7. We'd like to know how much the computers are used.
We don't need to know who is connected, which program is launched, etc. Just the cumulative time of use (or better, active use, with someone using it, not just computer idle).
The goal is to understand where/when more computers are needed. The principal thinks if teachers know the time is recorded, this will modify the usage significantly (not for everyone, not voluntarily). So we search something not too loud. This don't have to be hidden, just sober.

I found some softwares to do that but they cost a lot for us (we have 60 computers and no more money), and we don't need most of their features, because they do lots of things.

Anyone know how to track this usage time ?

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Gregory MOUSSAT
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    Silly question - what is done with these computers when they're NOT being used? Are they sitting idle? Are they turned off? This can make a big difference as to what tool you should use, because how you determine 'in use' can differ. – Shinrai Mar 22 '12 at 20:28
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    What other applications did you dislike? – Tamara Wijsman Mar 23 '12 at 06:49
  • @techie007: This question specifies 60 computers though. – Tamara Wijsman Mar 23 '12 at 06:50
  • Other applications we dislike are those whom cost 50$ per computer. I didn't found any other. But techie007 gave a nice link. – Gregory MOUSSAT Mar 23 '12 at 11:45
  • @Shinrai: when they are not being used they are mostly off. But the fact they can be idle is a concern because it is easy to have a bunch of idle computers all day long. That's why it will be better to have "active use". – Gregory MOUSSAT Mar 23 '12 at 11:46
  • A computer sitting idle isn't a bad thing. It happens. If you are concerned with wasting time while they idle, find the hours of the day they're not in use very much and run something like defrag / ccleaner as a scheduled task. No one, or not any normal person, is going to set on a school computer 24/7 because they feel bad letting it idle. – cutrightjm Mar 23 '12 at 12:48
  • Yeah, @ekaj is right - there's absolutely no harm in having them idle. If that's your only concern, don't bother; just let them run and have people shut them off when they go home for the day. – Shinrai Mar 23 '12 at 14:09

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