Should it sleep or should it be turned off?

I always have my Air on sleep mode and I don't really see any drain in the battery as long as I exit all the programs and windows

didztran said:

Might look like a stupid question. Honestly, it won't change my life, but it's just something out of curiosity.

I just bought the 13-inch mid-2013 MBA and the battery is really outstanding ! However, I was just curious about how to optimize the battery...

My question here is, we know that booting the computer takes little to no time, but still takes some energy, and being on standby also takes some energy. So, I was wondering, after how long does the standby energy equals to the energy to boot the MBA? Just so I know, let's say it's after two hours, then I know that if I plan on only using my computer in 3 hours, I should turn it off, or else if it's in 30 minutes, I should just let it sleep.

Please no comments about how it won't make any signifiant difference, I know !

Click to expand...

The only time I turn off my laptop is when I am transporting it in a bag for extended period of time. Otherwise, I just shut the lid.

I almost never turn off my computers. They use little battery sleepinh

didztran said:

Please no comments about how it won't make any signifiant difference, I know !

Click to expand...

None of us have taken the time to find this answer in a laboratory.

U do it and let us know!

Makes no difference with the air what so ever. It has a long sleep period (up to 30 days) so why not use the feature?

I sleep my MacBook Pro with no ill effects from being carried around!!

The only time my MBA gets turned off is if I need to shut it down or restart it for some specific purpose (OSX update, cleaning the monitor and keyboard, etc). Otherwise, it just sleeps when I'm not using it.

There are dozens of "sleep or shutdown" threads where you'll find many Mac users run months at a time without shutting down. Either is perfectly fine. One thing to consider is that there are maintenance scripts that run on a daily, weekly and monthly schedule. If your Mac is in sleep mode at the scheduled time, the scripts will run the next time your Mac is awake. If your Mac is shut down at the scheduled time, the scripts won't run until the next scheduled time. If your Mac is always shut down at those times, the scripts will never run, unless you manually run them or change the default schedule. You can manually run the scripts using the Maintidgit widget.

• Poll: Do you turn you MBP off?
• Should I sleep or shut down when I'm away?
• If you guys always sleep and never shut down...
• MacBook Pro: Sleep or Shut Down?
• Is it 'bad' to never shut an iMac down, but instead sleep it?
• Do you shut down or sleep your MBA?

I'm not sure of the answer, but here's how you could check.

1) Download & install coconut battery

Power to Boot

2) Open Coconut battery and take note of the current charge (not capacity) in mAh.
3) Power off the computer and do a cold boot (i.e.: don't do a restart).
4) Open Coconut battery and take note of the current charge. The power required to boot would be the difference between #2 and #4 (#2 - #4 = power to boot)

Power to Sleep

5) Use the computer as you normally would to establish a new baseline and give the battery some time to exercise.
6) Repeat step #2.
7) Sleep the system (close the lid) for some length of time, say 1 hr.
8) Wake the system from sleep.
9) Repeat step #4.

That should give you some indication of power consumption with respect to shutting down vs. sleeping. Some simple math would give you the optimal "break even point". For instance, if a cold boot uses 15 mAh, and sleeping takes 5 mAh/hr, then you should sleep your computer for less than 3 hours and shut it down for longer than 3 hours if you want to conserve every little bit of power.

10) Optional: Ignore steps 1-9 and just sleep the damn thing!

EDIT: So I couldn't post this without trying myself. Here are my results:

Starting charge: 2167 mAh
After cold boot: 2136 mAh
Power to Boot: 31 mAh

Starting charge: 2125 mAh
After 15 min Sleep: 2122 mAh
Power to sleep (extrapolated): 12mAh

Break even point: Just over 2.5 hours.