Guide
What is permanent lighting?
Permanent lighting is exterior LED lighting installed once and left up year-round: colour-changing LED lights seated in low-profile aluminum track along the roofline, controlled from an app. One system covers warm white for every evening, full colour for holidays, and everything between — with nothing to hang in November or take down in January.
How a permanent lighting system works
Every permanent lighting install is the same five parts, whatever the house looks like:
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Track | Aluminum channel mounted to fascia or soffit. Holds the lights in a straight line, hides the wiring, and matched to the trim colour it all but disappears by day. |
| Lights | LED pucks seated in the track. Colour-changing, so the same fixture does warm white on Tuesday and red-and-green in December. |
| Controller | Drives the lights and holds the scenes and schedules. The homeowner runs everything from an app. |
| Power supply | Converts household power for the system. Sized to the total number of lights, with headroom. |
| Extensions & connectors | The wiring between everything — plus power injection on long runs so the far end matches the near end. |
Permanent lighting vs. traditional holiday lights
String lights go up in the cold, come down in the wind, and get boxed until next year. Permanent lighting trades that annual cycle for a one-time professional install:
- Installed once — no ladders twice a year, no storage, no tangle.
- Year-round use — warm-white architectural lighting most nights, colour scenes for holidays, birthdays and game days.
- Nearly invisible by day — track colour-matched to the trim reads as part of the fascia, not as decoration.
- Scheduled and automated — scenes turn on at dusk and off at bedtime without anyone touching a switch.
Who installs permanent lighting?
Mostly professional crews: dedicated permanent lighting installers, holiday-light companies that moved to year-round systems, and electrical contractors. The work is at height, involves low-voltage wiring and power planning, and looks its price only when the lines are straight — which is why homeowners usually buy it installed.
If that's the business you're in (or want to be), we supply systems wholesale and wrote a guide on starting a permanent lighting business.
What does a system cost?
The honest answer: it depends on the roofline. The parts are priced openly in our catalog — track by the stick, lights by the pack, controllers configured with their power supply — so an installer can price a house by measuring it, and a homeowner can sanity-check a quote against real component prices.