Hi. Does Power Nap and normal Sleep have the same power consumption? Also is hibernate mode 25 bad for Fusion drives and desktop Macs?
Thank you.
God bless. Proverbs 31
iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.1), iMac (Late 2015)
Regular Sleep uses the least power, Hibernating is not bad for iMacs
You're sort of mixing metaphors. First, different model Macs have different sleep mode capabilities. Normal system sleep and standby modes are different among them, and of course display sleep is a different subject altogether.
Even a sleeping iMac consumes less power than a night light. Completely shutting it down doesn't use much less than that, which leads particularly energy-conscious users to conclude it might be an even better idea to completely disconnect it from power using a power strip for instance. That's a little extreme, since doing that probably causes a Mac to consume more energy by repeatedly starting up from a cold shutdown. Doing that would only make sense if you were to leave a Mac idle for weeks at a time. When there is no power available, an iMac relies upon a battery to preserve the contents of its NVRAM. When that battery becomes depleted, startup will take a long time, caches might need to be rebuilt, certain other operational aspects will be affected, and it's going to cost a lot of money to replace (unless you do it yourself, a tedious task that Apple does not consider approved).
For a through discussion of energy concerns please read the environmental report for your model iMac. Example: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/21_5inch_iMac_PER_Oct201 5.pdf
It's best not to mess with pmset to change a Mac's default hibernatemode – why? Because people encounter all kinds of reasons a Mac will or will not enter system sleep or wake when expected, well after they may have forgotten about having changed it. To reset it to defaults, reset the Mac's NVRAM.
About standby on your Mac - Apple Support
About Energy Saver sleep and idle modes in Mac OS X - Apple Support
Thanks. True, somehow I feel, Apple knows best at this when it comes to most settings. I put them hibernated to mode 0, everything things default now:-) Power Nap's nice to have, since this iMac 5k (just 6 days old) is going to be ON always (have always encountered screw up when a PC or Mac is booting up and it's gonna save a lot of time, setting up things that Reopening doesn't open (except for Instagram, most that need logging in).
By the way, Will App Store still download in the background (even if that option is off) when Power Nap is enabled? Will Power Nap override the setting in App Store preferences? Thanks.
this iMac 5k ... is going to be ON always
That's what I do. If you're not using the Mac, just walk away. You don't have to be polite about it.
Will App Store still download in the background (even if that option is off) when Power Nap is enabled?
Not unless you select that option in System Preferences > App Store. It's a matter of personal preference. Some people like to control when their downloads take place, due to limited data plans for example. Even then, if the App Store informs you that an update is available, you can choose to "install tonight" which will initiate the download sometime between 2 and 5 AM local time: Mac App Store: Update OS X and apps.
Which Uses Lesser Power: Power Nap or Regular Sleep? And is Hibernate ( mode 25) Bad for a Desktop Mac like the iMac?
