ROOFLINELIGHTING.
How permanent lights work, and how to add them without hurting the roof.
- GUIDES
- 2
- GLOSSARY TERMS
- 11
Permanent roofline lighting is an LED track fastened along the fascia or soffit, wired to a controller you run from your phone. It stays up all year and is meant to be close to invisible in daylight.
The lighting is the easy part. What it fastens into is the edge of your roof assembly, which is why the install matters more than the brand. This shelf covers both.
- How does permanent roofline lighting work?
- Will mounting lights damage my roof or void a warranty?
READ THEM IN THIS ORDER.
- 01How permanent roofline lighting worksPermanent roofline lighting is four parts: a slim channel mounted along the roof edge, a run of LEDs inside it that can each be set to their own colour, a low-voltage power supply, and a controller you run from an app. It stays up year-round, and the connectors, seals and electronics usually limit its life more than the LEDs do.
- 02Roofline lighting and your roof: mounting it without damagePermanent lights should fasten into sound fascia or solid soffit below the metal drip edge at the roof's edge, never through your shingles or roof deck, and stay clear of the soffit vents your attic breathes through. On a Calgary roof edge, where water drains and ice builds every winter, every fastener also has to be sealed.
THE BASICS
Plain-language primers. Assume nothing.
DEEP DIVES
For when you're mid-decision, mid-claim or mid-argument.
THE ROOFLINE LIGHTING GLOSSARY.
- Addressable LED
- An LED, or small group of LEDs, with its own control chip, so a controller can set its colour and brightness individually.
- Class 2 circuit
- A Canadian Electrical Code category for circuits limited in voltage and power, treated as a lower shock and fire risk. The power supply feeding one still connects to regular household wiring.
- Lighting channel
- The slim extrusion, usually aluminum, that holds permanent LED lights along the roofline and hides the wiring. Also called track.
- Lighting controller
- The device that sends data to addressable lights and connects to an app, storing colours, scenes and schedules.
- Lighting zone
- A section of a lighting run that can be controlled separately from the rest.
- Low voltage
- In lighting, a system that runs on low-voltage DC, commonly 5 or 12 volts for addressable LEDs, supplied by a power supply connected to household power.
- Lumen depreciation
- The gradual loss of light output from an LED over its life. Useful life is often stated as L70, the point where output has fallen to 70 percent of the original.
- Permanent roofline lighting
- LED lighting installed along the roof edge in a mounting channel and left up year-round, controlled from an app.
- Power injection
- Feeding extra power into an LED run at points along its length to make up for voltage drop.
- Power supply
- A device that converts household AC power into the low-voltage DC that LED lights run on.
- Voltage drop
- The loss of voltage along a length of wire. On long LED runs it can make the far end dimmer or shift its colour.
