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Always turn off the Imac everyday?
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For 33 years, I've shut down my Mac(s) at night and rebooted in the morning.
Works for me.
Seems to have worked for the Macs, too.
Works for me.
Seems to have worked for the Macs, too.
Not needed. I just restart from scratch if I run into a problem - aside that Macs are very resilient, no matter if you put them to sleep or shut them off.
It's really down to personal preference. However, there are a lot of housekeeping tasks that run in the background and these tasks can't run if the machine is turned off. I leave mine on all the time and this practice hasn't shown to cause problems over the years. macOS is based on BSD so it might benefit you to learn a bit about BSD and how it works.
My personal feeling is that if there's going to be any stress on the system it will be in temperature changes and one of the avoidable causes is the power-off and on cycle. But, others will tell you that the computer is better if it gets rebooted every day because it flushes out any memory leaking programs. It used to be a matter of pride back in the day when you could look at the number of days your Mac had gone between reboots as opposed to the likely number of hours on a Windows machine. In all likelihood it probably doesn't matter either way and the time saved on a machine coming back from sleep as opposed to off is not great
My imac is in my bedroom. If I don't shut it down, the imac will occasionally wake. And occasionally this wakes me.
I have a similar issue. My computer used to be in a separate room and I'd walk past the door in the morning and it would be awake, which puzzled me as I lived alone. It tracked it down to turning on my bedside light causing my Mac to wake (not always, intermittent faults are harder to find). I assume it is related to a small disturbance to the electrical supply.
Last night my iMac didn't go to sleep on it's own, so I got out of bed and turned it off manually. Next morning it turned itself on at it's normal wake up time of 6 AM. Weird.
Same here, never shut any of my Macs down unless I get a glitchy reaction...
iMac, 16" MBP, 13" MBP, 13" MBA, 12" rMB all on 24/7.
On the extreme side, my Xserve is powered on 24/7 with battery backup power and dual 750W redundant power supplies in the garage due to the fan noise...
I haven't switched off my computers for years. The only exception is when Something is off, when there is an update or when I travel. Otherwise, I put it to sleep each night. No issues there.
In fact, I would dare to say that constant switching on & off might actually be more harmful to the computer (because of sudden electricity spike) than anything else.
So, sleep it is.
In fact, I would dare to say that constant switching on & off might actually be more harmful to the computer (because of sudden electricity spike) than anything else.
So, sleep it is.
It's better from an energy perspective to shut it down when not in use. It's probably better from a hardware longevity standpoint to keep it running. Either way with a modern computer as long as you're using sleep settings the difference is probably negligible either way.
A 2019 27" iMac 5K consumes a bit over a quarter of a watt (0.27) when it's "off." (AKA Standby, according to Apple)
When it's sleeping, that figure rises by about a watt (1.23).
If one were to take a year-long vacation, and not touch their iMac, it would be the difference between 2,365 Wh, and 10,775 Wh.
According to the EIA, the average residential electricity rate in the U.S. is 13.04 cents per kWh. Hawaii has the highest rate, at 30.99 cents, Louisiana the lowest at 9.47 cents, though hydro-rich Washington and Idaho are close.
Using the average figure, over a year:
$1.41 (Sleep)
$0.31 (Off)
$1.10 Difference
Don't spend it all in one place!
Whatever your rationale may be for choosing Sleep or Standby, electrical cost isn't going to be a large factor.
When it's sleeping, that figure rises by about a watt (1.23).
If one were to take a year-long vacation, and not touch their iMac, it would be the difference between 2,365 Wh, and 10,775 Wh.
According to the EIA, the average residential electricity rate in the U.S. is 13.04 cents per kWh. Hawaii has the highest rate, at 30.99 cents, Louisiana the lowest at 9.47 cents, though hydro-rich Washington and Idaho are close.
Using the average figure, over a year:
$1.41 (Sleep)
$0.31 (Off)
$1.10 Difference
Don't spend it all in one place!
Whatever your rationale may be for choosing Sleep or Standby, electrical cost isn't going to be a large factor.
Thx that was informative! I have been wondering, would anyone know the electricity consumption for an iMac that is on (not asleep), screen turned off?
I have had an issue with Bootcamp where the screen is stuck at full brightness after waking up from sleep. Would be cool to do a similar cost calc on what it costs to leave the iMac on overnight
I made a practical test and found that overnight a 2011 iMac 27" on Sleep mode consumes about 0.5 kWh, so for a month its 0.5 x 30 = 15kWh.
For a year 12 * 15 = 180kWh.
YMMV.
They tell you it only uses 20-30 watts but you do a practical check and see if its right in your case or not.