Simmons says your PC, monitor and printer has other benefits besides electricity savings. Systems are more secure because rather than being in idle mode they need to be rebooted in order for them to be hacked. Additionally, CPUs and printers last longer if their power is turned off for eight hours at a time.

"But the primary objective is the energy savings," Simmons says.

With so many benefits, what keeps techies from powering down every night? Habit, Simmons says. After last year's Power IT Down Day, Simmons started powering down his laptop, monitor and printer before leaving for the day. "I've built a new habit where I shut all that down, and then I flip the switch on my power strip so there's no electrical draw on any of those devices," he says.

Admittedly, some techies won't be able to participate in Power IT Down Day because their IT departments ask them to leave their PCs on overnight since that's when they push software updates and send patches. But Simmons is urging these folks to at least turn off their monitors and printers next Thursday night.

"Everybody is focused on expense management and expense reduction. While this is a small reduction on an individual basis, it does add up," Simmons says. "Last year, we estimated that if we could get 1% of the 1.8 million federal government employees to participate in Power IT Down Day, the government would save over $24,000 for that day. If you multiply that over a year, it does have a material impact on the energy spend."