re: Permanent LED soffit lights?

I had Gemstone Lights installed on the front of my house. It was $3,600 here in Houston. I got a $600 discount for being offpeak season (It was September). The family loves the lights. I have them set for Sunset to Sunrise and Halloween theme right now. They installed and set everything up in a day. My controller box is in my garage next to sprinkler controller.

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Govee website seems to be a lot cheaper. The only issue I can see is that you might need to buy separate controllers if you split up the lights. I want to do this with my home and since we have a two story, I would need to find a way to power strips in different sections to different controllers.

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Running low voltage wire is very easy and cheap, it’s very safe so bare wires just ran down something like an inside corner of trim is super easy and fast.

I’m now strong considering this instead of Christmas lights. Leave them up and be festive occasionally for other items.

My only issue is running the lights on different floors. Our two story has an overhang above the first floor on two different parts of the house. I guess I would have to find some pretty long cables, paint them and run them all along the edge of the house and staple them down?

I’ve watched a few videos on LED light strips. Doesn’t look too hard as long as you have the connections done properly. I also plan on eventually doing the cabinet under lighting. That might be my first step before exterior lighting.

Not sure if it’s what you’re looking for but i just installed the Lumary smart Wi-Fi 4in round lights. Pack of 12 run a little over $300 on Amazon. They run off an app and can change color. House i bought already had some but i replaced when i redid the soffits and added. They are small disc lights with a depth of less than an inch. Figured i would try these for the cost difference. Been about 6 months and no issues yet.

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This thread inspired me to reach out for an actual quote. We are on a curved/corner lot, so lots of roofline visible to the street. So I knew the quote would be a little higher than the average, but didn't expect what they sent back. Looks like ~$5k for the Gemstone system through this one installer. Probably sitting on this idea for a while.

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I went to trim lights and had a similar experience.

I expected it to be a lot, but not as much as quoted.

I’m considering trying to tackle it with the LED strips and WLED. The install I can handle (no gables), but I’ll have to figure out the controllers and programming.

Now is probably not the best time to get a quote honestly. People are getting into Halloween stuff and then you got Christmas season starting. It’s funny stuff like this should be an indicator of the economy, I don’t see how 1 guy with a helper can’t do these installs in a day. Throw in a half day of prep, sales, quoting, etc and I’m guessing these guys are just tied up and shooting for the moon price wise.

After seeing this thread and looking up govee, I think I am gonna install these instead of Christmas lights. Has anyone installed these yet? Just curious where to install them on my soffit. Middle? Edge closest to house?

I saw a video online of a guy who showed how to install with standard RGB lights (they weren't rated for outdoors, but he bought a weatherproof cover for them.) Silicone the hell out of them into the soffit and farthest edge from the house. I guess if you have it too close to the house you'll see the individual LEDs from a distance.

If you put them in the middle you will see them when walking underneath. Amazon does sell 45 degree angled cases that will angle the light such, but I think it would look better to have the LEDs pointing straight down instead of directly at your walls/windows.

Originally I wanted to be a fully GE Sync Smart House but the current wafers I have are spotty at times and the Smart Bulbs were a pain to get working properly. Govee has not let me down on the two products I have with them.

Anyone have these under a covered patio/outdoor kitchen? If so any pictures?

Well I ordered the govee string lights and while doing some research on the best place to mount them I ran across the govee pro string lights. The new ones have a slimmer cord between lights and also have a warm white. Gonna send back the old ones and get the pros. I’ll update after I get them installed.