Turn off Mac after use?

Same here. Actually I don’t usually even put it to sleep - I’ll usually let any spinning drives power down and let the screen go off. Been doing this since probably 2002 and my ‘Quicksilver’ PowerMac G4, never had an issue.

I never shut down any of my macs, they only get a reboot on an os update if needed, and otherwise run perfectly. (and have done so for years)

That’s a good point. Often I’ve found that macOS starts showing issues of some kind or other after an iMac has been on for at least 20 days. So I end up doing a restart once or twice a month.

I almost never shut mine down; I just close the lid and shove it in my bag. But I do find that I periodically have to shut it down and restart it (about once a fortnight) - for whatever reason, doing so seems to help it run a little faster*.

It’s a 2015 13 inch MBP which is starting to struggle a little.

Like most other iMac people, I leave mine on all the time. It restarts for OS updates.

I always shut down my Macs (and PC) when I’m done.

A small attempt to be less harmful to the environment.

Like turning off lights and lowering the temperature of the central heating when I don’t need them.

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From some general searching around, it seems the difference of energy usage between a turned-off iMac compared to a sleeping iMac is pretty small.

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If you put your Mac to sleep at night (especially with Apple’s new, smart Power Nap feature) the yearly cost is negligible.

But it would be more if you kept it on 24/7 - I remember someone on Reddit did the math a few years ago for that for an iMac he owned, and for his local electricity rates it came out to something like $80/yr.

@bowline Truth. I should clarify I let mine go to sleep, but Screens can wake it up.

For me it’s much more about preventing waste of energy than saving a few (or more) dollars.

On an individual level it will not make a real difference, but maybe it does scale up if many Mac/PC users do this?

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I commend anyone who wants to help the environment in any way you feel you want to! Doesn’t matter how much it actually helps. Go for it!

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There was a good discussion of this question on a recent episode of Upgrade https://www.relay.fm/upgrade/222.

It’s been a while since I listened, but I believe both Jason Snell and John Siracusa (guest hosting) agreed that the daily shutdown was a relic of a prior era, although Snell confessed that he still did so on his desktop. Interestingly, I don’t believe they addressed the environmental issues raised in this thread.

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That dollar figure is interesting when you take into the fact that there has been a lot of discussion about subscriptions on this forum.

I’m not trying to trigger anyone but for $80/year, you could get multiple pieces of software. I know there are some people that the subscription is not about the cost but for me, it can be.

Plus, as people have mentioned, if it makes even a little impact on the environment, that’s not a bad thing.

It’s 23 hamburgers! It’s 57 whizzlewhats! It’s a downpayment on a whozisfozzle! :money_mouth_face:

Yes… it’s a… cost. (shrug)

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