A Cleaner Sound
Less than 20 miles from downtown Floyd, where music rings out from the Floyd Country Store, John and Mary Peluso are hard at work creating high-quality microphones for some of the greatest musicians locally and around the world. Earlier this year, like many small business owners, the Pelusos were looking to cut costs and clean up the large amount of energy used in their home and their businesses. With an environmental goal in mind, solar was a no-brainer.
“We recently decided to invest in our future, and the future of the planet.” John & Mary
After decades of vintage microphone repair work, John and Mary founded the Peluso Microphone Lab in 2002 to produce a line of new microphones dedicated to the memory of some of the finest microphones ever made, with an emphasis on sustainability and creating products to last a lifetime.
“We are now in a throwaway economy, but that’s not our philosophy.
Our philosophy is, we’re going to build a mic that in 50,
100 years people are still using.” -John Peluso
In addition to the Microphone Lab, the Pelusos run a separate lodging business on their property called Indian Creek Cabins. They built the two cabins themselves years ago using reclaimed lumber from a closed local mill and have since carved out walking trails through the woods around the cabins.
After talking to Baseline, they decided to move forward with a system large enough to offset their total energy usage for all buildings on their property. The system included four separate arrays—two roof-mounted arrays and two ground-mounted arrays. There were four interconnections total, making the system as complex as four separate systems. Baseline Solar Project Manager Tyler Reynolds says the team treated this one project as a sort of campus where they used multiple techniques and types of solar installations in one large job.
At 102 panels total, the system will produce ~51,600 kWh/year, saving them ~$7,740/year. “We installed a solar system designed to offset 100% of our energy usage. This system ties to the existing local energy grid. We are very proud to be able provide all of the energy we use at our Virginia facility from the sun. We can enjoy our clean air and water, our energy independence, and knowledge that we are doing our best to take care of our little corner of the planet.”
If you want to see their microphones in action, you can, later this summer, at our favorite local music festival Floydfest! Peluso Microphone Lab sponsors the On-The-Rise program, with a generous microphone giveaway to the top two bands each year. They also sponsor and are the featured microphones for the Bus Stop Sessions. Be sure to stop by this weekend and check them out, they are truly incredible!