Can I keep my iMac on all night?

[MacAndy74]

On my iMac G4, I leave it on 24/7 most times - but I do set the screen to sleep mode after 45 minutes.

 

[brop52]

Just put it to sleep at night and set the energy settings to put the monitor to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity and the computer to sleep after about an hour of inactivity. Sleep mode uses very little energy and plus it is a lot easier starting from sleep rather than a shut down.

The general rule is to only shut down if you aren't going to use it in the next 2 days.

 

[iSamurai]

mine runs 24/7, screw the planet, it can take another for the team.

but you're paying for the electricity bills lol

 

[lordsion]

So what if there is a power outage, i know we all (should) have circuit boards to prevent any damage but still if it is on sleep the power will still be cut regardless if you have a surge protector.... what will happen? and damage?

BTW how much electricity does the iMac use when ON and when ASLEEP? - just so i can compare the benefit of sleeping it to turning it off completely.

 

[hh83917]

I always leave it on 24/7 for downloads during the night. I usually set a corner to go into screensaver mode and go to screensaver when I'm not using it. I've set the display to turn off after a period of time.

All my macs are hook up to some UPS for power outage protection. I live in Texas and my apartment is somewhat old, so I'd be prepared with UPS for big thunder storms. If you use a desktop computer, I'd suggest getting a UPS for it. It is a must to me and convenient in a power outage. I remembered I used my UPS to power my lamp and fan in a thunderstorm last summer.

 

[lorenwade]

I just put mine to sleep at night. I keep it on 24/7.

 

[michael.lauden]

no problem with leaving it on. i have left it on for many things (hard drive clones, downloads, iTunes etc.)

i have a (popular) program named Caffeine that makes sure my screen won't dim/CPU won't goto sleep

you will have no problem, just make sure your screen is turned off if you plan to do any downloads over night.

if not, let it goto sleep

 

[WizardHunt]

I have a Mac Mini at present and never shut mine down. However I do put it to sleep whenever I go to bed. I seen in one of the Mac Magazines where the power consumed for a Mac Mini is 0.0001 Kilowatts, and in sleep mode is 0.0002 KW, and in use is 0.030 KW. For a Mac Pro it is when off is 0.0004 KW, and in Sleep mode for the Mac Pro is 0.0007 and in use 0.237 kw, but it does not show the power consumed for a iMac but one can guess that it is between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro so basically I would say for a iMac my best guess is:
Off: 0.002 kw
Sleep: 0.004 kw
On: 0.175 kw

So it is not much. Hope this helps.

 

[rgarjr]

Putting it to sleep is almost the same as turning it off. It will not hurt anything to leave machines on 24/7. Just turn off the screen.

 

[Hellhammer]

I shut down my for night and put it to sleep when I use it at morning or noon

 

[RogueVasion]

Of course you can keep it on all night, no one will stop you, haha.

But, honestly, I would put it to sleep when not using it. And if you are willing to save electricity, turn it off. My mac still has a pretty good boot time...

 

[TrapOx]

Will it become slower?

Quite the opposite!

In OS X, the daily maintenance script is scheduled to run every morning at 3:15 a.m.; the weekly script at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings; and the monthly script at 5:30 a.m. on the first day of each month.

If you put the computer to sleep or turn it off then chances are the scripts will never get a chance to run and your computer will get slower.

When should I shut it off?

Never!

 

[old-wiz]

So what if there is a power outage, i know we all (should) have circuit boards to prevent any damage but still if it is on sleep the power will still be cut regardless if you have a surge protector.... what will happen? and damage?
.

The problem occurs when the power comes back on - that's often when you get a damaging surge. I have my iMac on a UPS and when the power comes back I have to hit a button on the UPS for it to start up again - this prevents the power-back surge.

always use a good surge protector.

 

[acrahm]

since we are on the topic of HD's and keeping them on/off.
i am planning on getting an Imac within then next 6 months,

if i keep my Imac on 90% of the time (shut down once a week)

and I need a TB hard drive with my imac,

is there any difference in keeping on the imac if it has an internal tb hd vs an external tb hd?

the external HD is an western digitial. (i guess the question is, is there any problems with keeping an external hd on all the time)

 

[iSamurai]

So what if there is a power outage, i know we all (should) have circuit boards to prevent any damage but still if it is on sleep the power will still be cut regardless if you have a surge protector.... what will happen? and damage?

BTW how much electricity does the iMac use when ON and when ASLEEP? - just so i can compare the benefit of sleeping it to turning it off completely.

I dunno mate but my macbook sleeps when I sleep and when I wake up it wakes up too. it sleeps again when i go to uni and when i come back it wakes up. (lol )

as far as I know when it's on sleep only the RAM and other flash/volatile memory is kept running. HD and whatnot are switched off. and usually when i take my macbook to e.g. uni it is still on 'sleep'. and when i start using it not much battery has been used - you don't even recognise any battery loss, so it doesn't use that much power when it's on sleep. the power adaptor is slightly warm so there's definitely some current being drawn.

(i guess the question is, is there any problems with keeping an external hd on all the time)

i think turn it off when you don't need it - yes you need to eject it and it's pretty mundane but for the love of 300000 hours of HD life span and the environment, just turn it off.