The "cost" of never putting Mac Mini to sleep?

Hardware
1

I’m playing with the Rules in AirMail, and it seems like I need to have a Mac running AirMail 24/7 to get the rules to implement on my iOS devices. I have a Mac Mini at home that is always on, but it is in Sleep mode when unattended. I assume that to get the AirMail app to implement rules, I will need to disable sleep on that machine.

Does anyone else leave their machine fully running 24/7 (never in sleep mode)? I’m wondering what the cost to me really is? I’m assuming the power consumption is relatively negligible, but I might be wrong. I’m also nervous about the system being really laggy when I do sit down to use it, after being on 7+days.

Anyone have any first hand experience?

2

I ran my 2012 Mac mini nonstop from January 2013 until last spring with no problems whatsoever. I did restart every 3 weeks or so to delete cruft and reclaim RAM from apps that tended to ‘leak’ it.

I do put my current iMac to sleep periodically, but I don’t think I’d need to.

4

At work I ran every kind of Mac nonstop with only an occasional reboot after updates. And I do the same with my personal Mac.

5

The mini is rated 150Watt max. Prices for electricity depend on where you live, in SoCal lowest is 21ct/kWh. So 0.15 x 0.21 x 24 x 365 = 275/ year.

6

I just replaced my Mac Mini i purchased in April 2014 and has been running 24/7 processing cancer research data non stop. I replaced it with a new 2018 Mac Mini because the old one was getting slow due to macOS advances. I also only rebooted the 2014 Mac Mini for software updates and power failures.

7

Thanks all - this is very helpful. And to be clear, when you are all saying 24/7, you mean you have disabled the hard drive from going to sleep, so it is always truly “running”?

Sounds like it’s worth giving it a try - and maybe even picking up an EVE Energy plug that Wolfie recommended!

8

Yes, though I’d put my screen to sleep.

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