Why LED and nothing else
Hardware that stays up year round faces a harder test than hardware that lives in a box eleven months a year. Traditional bulbs were built around a season, not a decade. LEDs generate almost no heat and have nothing fragile inside, which is the whole reason a permanent system is possible.None of this is a reason to become an expert. But it is worth knowing what you are buying, because the answer tells you how carefully somebody works. The people who can walk you through it are generally the ones doing it properly.
What the channel does
The LEDs are set into an aluminum channel matched to your trim. That channel hides the hardware and aims the output. It gets painted to your trim color as part of the order, so the daytime house does not change.
Individual diodes, not one long bulb
The lights are individually controllable, which is what makes patterns possible. Without individual control you get one color across every foot of the run. With it you get alternating colors, movement and transitions. Most nights the fancy part goes unused, which is not a criticism.Look at somebody's finished work at noon rather than at nine, because night hides sloppy mounting and daylight does not.
Power, control and the parts you do not see
The parts you never look at are the wiring, the power feed and the controller. How that wiring is routed says more about the crew than the lights do. It is worth asking and the answer should be specific.
What it means for maintenance
The upside of never taking it down has a matching requirement: the install has to be right. A system put up carefully asks very little of you. A rushed one shows in the first summer, which is exactly what you were paying to avoid. The hardware is the easier half. The workmanship is the other half.
Weather is what the hardware is up against
Permanent hardware takes whatever the year brings. Sun and heat do the slow damage. Moisture finds every weak joint. The failure points are
https://pastelink.net/ter23e5x almost never the LEDs.
Brightness is a setting, not a fixed value
The output is not one level. At full output the house is a statement. Turned down, it is exterior lighting. The everyday level ends up low, and that is what runs most nights.
Seeing it before you commit
Specifications only tell you so much. What actually answers the question is a design for your specific house. EverCrest Lighting installs permanent LED lighting for homes and businesses across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, out of Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].