Newtown Family Puts its Energy in Making Homes More Efficient

Brothers Jeff and Matt Alligood got their first taste of working with their father as pint-sized helpers, alongside their dad Gene as part of his heating and air-conditioning business.

“The tool belts were bigger than us,” said Matt Alligood, 29. “The hammers were hitting us in the ankles.”

Fast forward about 20 years and Matt and Jeff, 25, are no longer their dad’s helpers. Instead, all are co-owners of Newtown-based Alligood Energy.

The business was formed in September 2012 following Gene’s layoff from an energy company where he oversaw the development and construction of more than $100 million energy-saving performance contracts for Fortune 500 energy service companies, including Honeywell, Siemens and Johnson Controls.

Gene, now 60, said he was unsure about starting his own business again at 58 years old. But, Jeff, who had just graduated college – majoring in entrepreneurship – nudged him.

“Jeff came up to me and said ‘if you want to start a business I’m all in,’ ” Gene said.

Soon after, Matt, who had studied finance at Penn State, got on board as well.

“The entrepreneurial attitude was in the family,” said Matt. “All three of us were ready at the same time.”

Given the elder Alligood’s more than 40-year energy background, the family set their sights on making buildings & homes more energy efficient. Jeff and Matt focus on residential, while their father handles commercial. The business’ signature service, a roughly three-hour home energy audit involves using a blower door test and an infrared scan to pinpoint air leaks and energy efficiencies.

The goal, the family said, is to educate home and business owners about their home.

“If they want a building expert to figure out why they are uncomfortable in their own home, we are that expert,” Jeff said.

Extreme weather conditions, particularly summer heat, make inefficient buildings even more “unbalanced.”

“Some rooms are cool,” Gene said. “Some are really, really hot. There’s a reason for that”

Another key indicator that energy is being wasted is higher-than-normal cooling or heating bills.

The goal is to offer Home Energy Audits to would-be homebuyers prior to closing on a new home, similar to a home inspection. The analysis provides the homebuyer with a realistic assessment of where the home is losing energy, the monthly energy bills it will cost them and a good estimate of how much it would cost to improve the home that could in turn be used in the purchasing negotiation.

In a recent 6,500-square-foot home energy retrofit performed by Alligood Energy, Gene said the owner went from spending over $4,000 a month and still freezing in the Winter to an energy bill of less than $1,000 a month after addressing the massive energy inefficiencies.

After every energy retrofit, even before the next utility bill arrives, follow-up testing is performed to quantify the energy reduction in house air leakage and percentage of savings.

While the Alligood brothers took some of their business cues from their dad, they certainly put their own environmentally friendly spin on Alligood Energy.

“Our whole company is paperless,” Matt said.

“You don’t need paper to run a business anymore,” Jeff added.

Saving trees by eliminating paper has gone a step further via a recent partnership with TreePhilly. For each energy audit performed, Alligood Energy will plant one tree.

The tree-planting effort ties in with the family’s love of nature, the outdoors and the Alligood goal of transforming our communities into better living spaces, inside & out.

To learn more

For more information about Alligood Energy visit www.alligoodenergy.com or call (215) 584-5141.