Residential Members

Are you a new member? Check out our new member information.

Residential consumers make up the largest portion of South River EMC's electric cooperative membership. As a cooperative, we strive to provide answers for all our consumers regarding their electric service as well as questions regarding the business of their cooperative. Many members phone the cooperative each month with questions about their current electric bill or seeking advice on how to reduce their electric bill. This page is intended to provide you with some answers to these questions.

Our Cooperative has several marketing programs to help you:

We also offer many programs designed to simplify your life:

South River EMC has trained Energy Marketing Specialists and Customer Service Representatives who can answer any of your questions regarding energy efficiency and energy use. Contact our Member Services Department for a free energy audit! Feel free to call your cooperative at 892-8071 to get your questions answered.

Interconnection of Distributed Generation

South River EMC is happy to work with residential members who have chosen to install a renewable energy generator, with the intent of selling excess power back to the Cooperative. The member must ensure that the installation complies with the National Electric Code (NEC) and all applicable local codes (latest editions) and that the system has been inspected and approved by the electric inspector that has legal jurisdiction. Feel free to call the Cooperative at (910)892-8071 for more information or send e-mail inquiries to sremc@sremc.com.

Guidelines for Interconnection
Requirements for Interconnection
List of Applicable Standards
Interconnection Application

Although there are many sources of renewable energy available, not all are ideal for our location, for example, wind energy is not recommended for central North Carolina, but solar energy is feasible.

Automated Meter Reading (AMR)

South River EMC is in the process of installing an automated meter reading, or AMR, program. However, progress will be slow and full installation of the program will take a couple of years.

Using wireless radio transmitters, AMR remotely reads member meters and then transfers the data into our billing system. AMR will reduce the need for meter readers to manually gather meter readings each month. We will begin to install new metering at several substations this month. These substations serve primarily the areas closest to the Dunn office so that our employees working on this project can respond quickly in the event there is an issue. Contractors will begin to replace the meters on homes this month to correspond with the remote reading equipment in the substations.

Benefits of AMR

Reduces operational costs such as meter reading and transportation costs.
Reduces the need to access your property to read your meters.
Improves call resolution – the AMR system will give employees the ability to provide members with more detailed information such as power consumption patterns, outage and blink count history and voltage information, reducing high
bill inquiries.
Allows for better outage management.
Reduces employee injuries, especially in areas with fenced yards, dogs and landscaping.

For more information call 800-338-5530 or (910)892-8071 or e-mail sremc@sremc.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Typical Energy Use Chart

Energy Use Chart
(pdf file requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader)

This chart will help you determine how much energy is typically consumed by the appliances in your home. Granted there are certain variables that affect the performance of many appliances, but this chart, which appeared the South River EMC's February 2005 newsletter is a good guide.

Manufactured Housing

Manufactured housing is one of the fastest growing residential markets in the the United States. Although the manufactured housing industry is working diligently to improve the overall quality of their homes, the fact remains that manufactured homes have problems unique to their homes. South River EMC has gathered several resources to address your questions about manufactured housing.

Energy Savers

The Department of Energy has assembled a comprehensive website dedicated to helping consumers to learn strategies for saving energy around their homes in all seasons. When you visit http://www.eere.energy.gov/energy_savers/ you will find several helpful brochures in both English and Spanish that will provide helpful tips for becoming an Energy Saver.

Weatherization: Sealing Air Leaks In Floor Duct Systems

There are many ways to increase the energy efficiency of your manufactured home that will lower your utility bills and make your home more comfortable.

Although manufactured homes can be built that exceed strict energy efficiency targets, half of manufactured homes built in North Carolina have only minimum required insulation levels and costly furnaces instead of energy saving heat pumps.

Manufactured homes built to minimum standards are a few dollars less per month to buy, but the promise of affordability is lost when the home is found to be more expensive to heat and cool. It is especially important in these homes that the air ducts are properly sealed to avoid losing heated or cooled air to the outside through air leaks. Sealing air leaks in heating and cooling ducts will lower energy bills, reduce mold and other moisture problems and prevent insects and pests from getting into your home.

Because of the unique design of manufactured housing, weatherization techniques are not familiar to most homeowners and general contractors. Advanced Energy has produced a “how to” guide designed to help manufactured home owners identify and describe how to fix duct leaks in most manufactured homes.

Manufactured homes are built as single-wide or double-wide models. The duct systems are basically the same except that the double-wide home has a crossover duct. If you have a double wide but cannot see the crossover, one or two crossovers will be located within the floor cavity.

Weatherization: How To Seal Air Leaks In Your Floor Duct System walks homeowners through repairs to their duct system to include:

Sealing Air Leaks Under the Furnace
Sealing Air Leaks At Inline Supply Riser
Sealing Air Leaks At Branch Ducts
Sealing Air Leaks AT Crossover Connector
Sealing Air Leaks At End Caps
Securing And Sealing Flexible Crossover Duct
Sealing Air Leaks At Perimeter Supply
Sealing Bottom Plastic

Tools needed to complete these repairs can be found at most home improvement stores. For a bilingual copy of Weatherization: How To Seal Air Leaks In Your Floor Duct System, click on the icon below to download a PDF or stop by one of our our offices.

Weatherization: How To Seal Air Leaks In Your Floor Duct System