The hardware, the install, the app, and the questions to ask any bidder.
Permanent roofline lighting is three things: a channel, a track of addressable LEDs, and a controller. The channel is a low-profile extrusion that mounts under your roofline. The track seats into it. The controller is a small weatherproof box, usually near an exterior outlet, that talks to your wifi.
That's the whole system. Everything else — the scenes, the schedules, the holiday presets — is software running on top of it.
One visit for most houses. Complex rooflines and larger homes can run into a second day, and we'll tell you which yours is before we start rather than after.
You get colours, brightness, patterns, zones and schedules, plus preset holiday scenes. It's genuinely easy and most people have it figured out in ten minutes. The thing worth asking any installer — including us — is whether anything requires an ongoing subscription to keep working. Some systems in this category gate features behind a fee. Ask directly and get the answer in writing.
This is where installers differ most, and where you should push hardest. Alberta's Safety Codes Act governs electrical work, and the low-voltage exemption people cite is narrower than it's often presented. How we handle it: where an installation needs permitted electrical work — a new circuit, a panel change, anything past a straightforward connection to an existing exterior outlet — it is done by a licensed electrician under permit. Where it genuinely doesn't, we install it ourselves and tell you that's what we're doing. What we won't do is claim every job is permitted when it isn't, or wave the question off when it matters. Ask any bidder exactly how the power connection will be made and who is making it. The ones who can't answer are telling you something.
Five questions. The answers separate these companies faster than the price does.
Usually it runs off an existing exterior circuit — the draw is small. Whether your specific panel and circuit can carry it is something to establish on site, not over the phone. If it needs a dedicated circuit, that's an electrician's job and it goes on the quote as its own line.
Schedules are stored on the controller, so the lights keep running their programme. What you lose is remote control until it reconnects. Nobody sits in the dark because their router rebooted.
Generally yes — extending a run or adding a plane is normal, as long as the controller has capacity. Worth mentioning at design time if you know you'll want the back of the house done eventually, because it affects the controller we spec.
The site visit, then a written quote, then scheduling. In September and October that's usually quick. In mid-November everybody in Calgary calls at once and it isn't. Book early if you want it lit for the holidays.
Drop your name and a way to reach you. We'll follow up with next steps — no pressure, no sales call.
