This has to be intended for payment periods of any given lenght or forever?
I'm asking because even if someone would leave the node online 24/7, not being a data center it could happen that occasionally one may have to keep PC offline for a while.
This is for one payment period, and if you do not meet this requirement you won't be paid. Better luck in the next payment period.
EarningsAn earning period is based upon block time. It is the amount of time between 576 blocks which is approximately 24 hours. When an earning period ends each active node is checked and any node with exceptions or downtime causing the node to be available less than 92% of the earning period is excluded from the earnings pool. A node with greater than 92% availability but with some downtime or exceptions will have the amount of time subtracted from their allocation. These small subtractions help offset the fees incurred with making the payments.
A payment administrator on a weekly basis reviews the earnings to ensure they were generated correctly and marks them to be paid.
Coins are then transferred to a payment address and the payment is made. No funds are stored on the server. This process may be automated at a later time.