Macbook Sleep or Shutdown?

I just recieved my macbook in the mail, this week and i was wondering about how long is to long is ok to leave it in sleep mode. Im concerned about the long term battery life. my last laptop, an hp, the battery could no longer hold charge after a litter more than a year.

so which is better sleep or shutdown?

thanks,
matt

 

Based on what I've read rebooting a computer in the morning after shutting it off the day before uses more power than putting the computer to sleep overnight. If it's going to be asleep more than a day or two, then shutting it off will probably save electricity, otherwise, it's more energy efficient to let your Mac snooze.

 

Turning on a computer produces negligible amounts of wear and tear. This isn't like lightbulbs that only burn out when turned on. It doesn't use any more energy than it takes to run the computer.

Shut down uses no power because the computer is off. Sleep shuts everything down except the RAM and whatever else is needed to resume the session. This uses a trickle of power.

I suggest you shutdown if you're not using the computer for a few hours. If you Sleep the computer long enough, it'll get low on battery and shutdown. When you turn it on again, it'll pull a saved copy of the memory from the hard drive (Safe Sleep).

 

If you're concerned about battery wear and tear-don't be. Modern batteries are pretty good. That's not to say that you can neglect them, but with proper care and feeding you should not see a super noticeable difference in just a year (assuming you don't use the hell out of the battery). If the computer will be plugged in for a long period of time, remove the battery and store in a cool, dry place

The battery guide has some interesting material and www.batteryuniversity.com is also a great (albeit more technical) resource.

Remember, if you're transporting the computer, ALWAYS shut it down first.

 

When I sleep my laptop, mine is always plugged in, and I don't usually unplug my laptop.

 

I leave my MacBook on sleep almost all the time, occasionally shutting down overnight.