Does external HD have to be on all the time?

So I have an external drive I'm using for Time Machine. It tends to run hot if I leave it on all the time (passive cooling enclosure- no fan). Plus it's extra noise around my otherwise nearly silent mac.
So I've been turning it off and on, and usually when I turn it on the activity light starts blinking and Time Machine goes to backing up. Tonight I connected the drive and it shows up under finder but isn't doing anything. Do I need to send some command to start the backup? (I added some photos today I wanted to backup).
Do I need to leave it on all the time? Most of the external HDs I see these days don't have a cooling fan- I'm not sure if they are supposed to be on all the time. I'm looking at upgrading to a 500GB WD My Book drive, (using a 120GB drive already 80GB full after one week) but it doesn't have a fan either.

I leave mine off and turn it on only when I want to backup (once per day). You can manually start the backup from System Preferences or if you enabled the icon on the Main menu, from it.
Regards,

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