Picture this: it's late in October and the house belonging to your neighbor looks like a Las Vegas casino with its seasonal lights hanging from its roof edges in an inconsistent manner and you're balancing on a ladder in a similar fashion at 11pm. Every. Single. Year. My Ever Lights There is a smarter way--and it is never touching a ladder again in December.
Permanent outdoor lighting systems are installed once, either mounted along your roof edge or eave edges, and remain nearly invisible through all four seasons. No clutter. No storage bins. No swearing at knotted extension power cords. They are operated by an app, and it means that you can switch to a spooky Halloween orange and then to holiday red and green without even standing up on your couch. Honestly, that sells the idea for many people.
The technology behind these systems has developed at lightning speed. Modern LED bulbs have durations of over 50,000 hours. The accuracy of color is almost unbelievable - millions of color combinations on some systems. It is possible to add lights to the music, or to automate lighting times or to display your team’s colors during a match. It is surprisingly powerful how much power you have. The lights sit in small aluminum tracks which match your roof trim, so in the middle of the day nobody sees that they are there at all.
The topic everyone hesitates to discuss is cost. The cost of installation is usually between two and six thousand dollars depending on the size of the house and the brand you choose. The price is high until you sit down and add up all the money burned on cheap Christmas lights in the last ten years - on top of that are the hours wasted and the times someone got hurt because of a ladder fall. Suddenly the math looks different.
Installation is to be done strictly under a licensed electrical contractor or certified dealer. Outdoor wiring, weather exposure, and integrated lighting systems are not a DIY project unless you truly know what you are doing. Once the system is installed though? The maintenance is virtually zero. Wipe the tracks once or twice a year, update the app, and you're done.