Poll: Who puts their iMac to sleep or shuts it down?

[talmy]

For those that sleep their computers, I'd like to point out the utility "Should I Sleep" which is available on the Mac App Store. You can set your Mac to sleep quickly (I use 2 minutes) and have Should I Sleep hold the computer awake if any of the following are true (any can be disabled and has adjustable thresholds):

1. A face is detected in front of the camera
2. There is movement in the view of the camera
3. The room is noisy
4. An external display attached (useful for Macbooks connected to projectors)
5. Downloads/Uploads taking place
6. Heavy CPU activity

Now my computer sleeps quickly if I leave the room and it isn't doing anything that shouldn't be interrupted. Nice!

 

[ATC]

For those that sleep their computers, I'd like to point out the utility "Should I Sleep" which is available on the Mac App Store. You can set your Mac to sleep quickly (I use 2 minutes) and have Should I Sleep hold the computer awake if any of the following are true (any can be disabled and has adjustable thresholds):

1. A face is detected in front of the camera
2. There is movement in the view of the camera
3. The room is noisy
4. An external display attached (useful for Macbooks connected to projectors)
5. Downloads/Uploads taking place
6. Heavy CPU activity

Now my computer sleeps quickly if I leave the room and it isn't doing anything that shouldn't be interrupted. Nice!

That app sounds really cool, thanks.

 

[steve knight]

why not do both I have the mac mini turn off when I got to bed and wake up when I get up. saves power.

 

[Lancer]

I've been leaving my new iMac on 24/7, having the screen turn off about 30 minutes on non use. Normally I would just put it to sleep at night but it's been having issues with lost network connection and external drives, which I hope are resolved with OS X Mavericks.

 

[rushbc]

I've been leaving my new iMac on 24/7, having the screen turn off about 30 minutes on non use. Normally I would just put it to sleep at night but it's been having issues with lost network connection and external drives, which I hope are resolved with OS X Mavericks.

You have a shiny new awesome iMac (i7!), but a 4 year old iPhone...
what gives, are you waiting on the iPhone 6? LOL

 

[Liffey]

Usually just put it to sleep, but every 3 to 5 days I shut it down overnight.

 

[Lord Xeb]

I don't do either. It is ALWAYS running.

 

[TyPod]

I sleep my computers. Mainly because it's what I've always done and I like the ability of having it run scripts.

 

[Arfdog]

I shutdown my 2006 iMac every day, and booted it up every morning, pretty much, for six years. Never had any issues with it.

Why? I pay the bills. iMac plus second monitor, plus peripherals, even on sleep/standby: it adds up. I reset the schedule of the periodic tasks so that they would be performed when the machine was on.

Here is the savings that will "add up" in your energy bill. lol.

At $0.11 per kilowatt-hour, and the Mac using 0.8 watts more in sleep vs off mode.... at 5 hours a day, every day, over 20 years you will save 29 kW-h, or $3.21. Your TV will use more electricity in 2 months.

 

[benwiggy]

At $0.11 per kilowatt-hour, and the Mac using 0.8 watts more in sleep vs off mode.... at 5 hours a day, every day, over 20 years you will save 29 kW-h, or $3.21. Your TV will use more electricity in 2 months.

Firstly, I'm in the UK, where the price is considerably more expensive.
Secondly, You haven't factored in the cost of the many other peripherals that would stay on.
Thirdly, I sleep for more than 5 hours a day.
Next, just because I've got one device that uses loads of power, doesn't mean I should be profligate with everything else.
Lastly, we've got a finite amount of stuff to burn. Lol indeed.

My MacMini still takes a bit of time to wake up all the apps and be fully responsive. It's not that much quicker than rebooting. With Resume, I can reboot and still have all my documents and apps as I left them.
In short: the technical differences are minimal. If you want to switch things off when you're not using them, go ahead. If you don't, don't.

 

[Siderz]

You have a shiny new awesome iMac (i7!), but a 4 year old iPhone...
what gives, are you waiting on the iPhone 6? LOL

I'm the same as him; have the latest iMac (21.5", i7, 16GB RAM), but still using an old iPhone.

My reasons are:

• The 3GS was the last to impress me; the 4, 4S, and 5 didn't impress me that much
• The OS has impressed me, and the 3GS still supports the latest one, so I might as well stick to the 3GS
• I don't value my phone as much as my computer; I'd rather spend more on a computer than a phone

Yes, I am waiting on the next iPhone, be it the '6' or the '5S', I'll be getting it. The 3GS is definitely on the slow side when doing things, but I've managed to resist the urge to go and buy the iPhone 5.

 

[Lancer]

You have a shiny new awesome iMac (i7!), but a 4 year old iPhone...
what gives, are you waiting on the iPhone 6? LOL

Waiting for the 5s or what ever Apple releases next month.

Could not get the 5 as my old G5 Mac would not sync with it, so got the new Mac now waiting on a new iPhone and my first iPad

 

[Tobias Funke]

Sleep it through the day.

Shut it down at night.

 

[torana355]

I don't do either on mhy 2012 iMac, i just sleep the display. I have P2P running 24/7. I did the same with my 2008 iMac which is still running like new.

 

[kazmac]

both

Sleep mostly, but I will only shut down in stormy weather or if I know I won't be using the machine for more than 2 days.

 

[designs216]

Just let it sleep. Who has time for a reboot?

 

[FreemanW]

I turn it off.

The only consideration in the decision is the fan, the ever present, constantly running fan, collecting particulate matter from the air-stream and depositing that matter on heat-sinks and plenum surfaces.

Don't need no stinkin fan running and gathering dust and debris while I am sleeping or otherwise not using this equipment.

 

[Siderz]

The only consideration in the decision is the fan, the ever present, constantly running fan, collecting particulate matter from the air-stream and depositing that matter on heat-sinks and plenum surfaces.

Putting the Mac to sleep should stop the fan and hard drive from running, unless you specify it not to (Either there's a setting or some kinda mod).

Sometimes it takes a few minutes to actually go to sleep properly.

Also, as an update (I've posted in this thread before) I put my Mac to sleep now, I don't shut it down.

 

[talmy]

You have a shiny new awesome iMac (i7!), but a 4 year old iPhone...
what gives, are you waiting on the iPhone 6? LOL

I've got an i7 iMac and no iPhone (or any "smart phone") at all. What does that make me?

 

[Siderz]

I've got an i7 iMac and no iPhone (or any "smart phone") at all. What does that make me?

Unequipped

 

[Arfdog]

Firstly, I'm in the UK, where the price is considerably more expensive.
Secondly, You haven't factored in the cost of the many other peripherals that would stay on.
Thirdly, I sleep for more than 5 hours a day.
Next, just because I've got one device that uses loads of power, doesn't mean I should be profligate with everything else.
Lastly, we've got a finite amount of stuff to burn. Lol indeed.

My MacMini still takes a bit of time to wake up all the apps and be fully responsive. It's not that much quicker than rebooting. With Resume, I can reboot and still have all my documents and apps as I left them.
In short: the technical differences are minimal. If you want to switch things off when you're not using them, go ahead. If you don't, don't.

I'm just pointing out that you seem to be missing how little you are saving. It's almost zero. Even if you quadruple that figure, it still amounts to just about nothing.

Also pointing out for other's benefit. You're not saving anything by shutting off.

 

[benwiggy]

I'm just pointing out that you seem to be missing how little you are saving. It's almost zero. Even if you quadruple that figure, it still amounts to just about nothing.
Also pointing out for other's benefit. You're not saving anything by shutting off.

Standby power consumption represents between 9% to 16% of the average power bill, according to a recent study. That can be as much as £86 ($132) per year.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jun/26/appliances-standby-cost-households-energy
Yes, that's the whole house, and the Mini is just a part of that. But if you get into the habit of leaving your Mac on -- what about the monitors, printers, scanners, external drives, hardware interfaces, audio equipment, etc, etc that's all attached? The easiest thing to do is turn off the Mac, and turn of the power strip that's got everything else on it.

 

[lexvo]

See my post #44, above, and make sure "Wake for Network Access" is not checked.

Correct. But keep in mind that this must be turned on when using your Mac for homesharing.

Homesharing is one of the reasons I always put my iMac to sleep instead of shutting it down. (and because WOL doesn't seem to work reliable I am thinking of putting only my display to sleep)

 

[Chrisbbarnes]

Sleep

I know you asked about an iMac, but I have a Mac Pro 2.1 which I have slept it every time when not in use since purchase in Dec 07.

I did conduct a test in the past few months and found that even when the machine is shut down it still draws 10watts of power unless I switch the power off at the wall. When in sleep mode I think it draw around 70watts.

 

[talmy]

Correct. But keep in mind that this must be turned on when using your Mac for homesharing.

Homesharing is one of the reasons I always put my iMac to sleep instead of shutting it down. (and because WOL doesn't seem to work reliable I am thinking of putting only my display to sleep)

In my case I've got a separate Mac mini server thats on 24/7 (consumes 41 watts even with 8TB of drives) so sleeping the other systems, with wake on LAN off, is not an issue. In fact, wake on LAN is a problem because of the proxy action of the Airport Extreme causes the waking system to see another of the same name and then rename itself. It's been a bug ever since that feature was added to OS X.