Depending on which one you talk to, it all started 40 years ago with Bill’s Army-Navy game parties in Philly or Jack’s propensity for being put on restriction (he didn’t take some of the rules very seriously). Of course, the two life-long buddies admit, it really just started while they were in the Navy.

Bill Kee and Jack Greenhalgh are talking about their new business. Energy Consultants Inc, a company they began three years ago to distribute a little box that saves customers big bucks on their energy bills.

The company’s roots go all the way back to the Naval Academy’s class of 60, when Kee and Greenhalgh were classmates in the same company. After graduating, the two friend’s paths continued to cross as they served around the world, married, earned MBAs and eventually retired together from the Navy in 1980.

Then, in 1992, Alex, Kee’s second of three sons, was hired for a sales position after graduating from college. When Kee discovered his son was selling little boxes that were supposed to save electricity when put on houses, he was highly skeptical, but became one of his Alex’s first customers, installing the box in his own home.

“After that, I didn’t really think anything more about it, until about seven weeks later when I received my electric bill”, Kee said. The bill was $140 less than it would have been-Kee became a believer. Excited, he called the president of the company, Brayden Automation, and within eight weeks, he had received the dealership for Virginia and north-eastern North Carolina.

Kee called in Greenhalgh for help, and business has been booming ever since. The Energy Sentry uses new technology to solve an old problem. To reduce energy costs, most homeowners switch off unnecessary lights and turn down their heat. While important CF-Navy buddies Bill Kee and Jack Greenhalgh have been friends 40 years –from before their retirement from the Navy to their present venture as partners in Energy Consultants Inc.

Forts in energy conservation, these actions because life style changes and discomfort and may, by them-selves, have little effect on actual energy bills.

The reasons for this is that homeowner are charged either a flat rate or a demand- based “time –of-use” rate. The demand-based rate charges more for electric use during “peak” times of the day when the electric company is asked to supply the most energy. Consequently, when a home’s peak electric demand increases, usually due to several appliance and temperature control units operating at once, electric costs increase, despite the homeowner’s manual attempts to regulate their use.

The energy sentry saves money and preserves the homeowner’s lifestyles by managing the electric demand, not electric use. The demand controller monitors the home’s electric demand through a microprocessor that keeps demand during on-peak-periods below a limit regulated by the homeowner. “It’s like a traffic cop,” Kee Explained. “The homeowner sets it to whatever level they’re comfortable with. Then it alternates the air conditioning and water heater on a minute -by-minute’s basis instead of letting them all run at once, continuously. It smoothest out short peaks and valleys of electrical use.” Energy Consultants, founders are so confident of their product that they offer an unconditional, one-year, money-back, total satisfaction guarantee. The company also offers a three-year parts-and-labor guarantee.

These types of customer protection, say Kee and Greenhalgh, are where their company differs from the competition. The company is also a member of the better Business Bureau’s CARE program, has been involved in chartering the Virginia demand control dealers Association and offers a free monthly savings analysis of their customer’s electric bills for as long as desired.

Kee and Greenhalgh, who plan to expand the company’s market share around the state in the residential sector and nationally in the commercial sector, say their friendship has not been affected by being in business together.

The Navy pals have acquired a long list of satisfied customers. However, one customer is someone they used to hide from, when they were in the Academy- one of the pair’s faculty military officers. But, they report, he’s delighted with his Energy Sentry and this time around, Kee and Greenhalgh have no need to hide.