There are real cases for seasonal. Here they are, alongside the case against.
Permanent lighting costs more once; seasonal installation costs less each time but you pay it every year. Permanent fits if you'll be in the house a few years and want it lit outside December. Seasonal fits if you're selling soon, renting, or your fascia needs work first.
We install permanent lighting, so weigh what follows with that in mind. The cases where seasonal wins are real, and they're listed here too.
Permanent tends to be the better fit when one or more of these is true.
Seasonal tends to be the better fit in these situations.
Permanent is a larger single cost, priced per linear foot (the cost page has our rates). Seasonal is a smaller cost that repeats every year and rises with labour. Whether and when that crosses over depends on what you pay now and how long you'll be in the house, and we don't have either number. Anyone showing you a confident payback chart built it from guesses about your situation.
December in Calgary is dark by half past four and icy from November. A ladder on ice in the dark is a bad place to be, and it's for a decoration. If you're currently doing it yourself, the case for permanent isn't really financial.
Permanent 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.
Permanent 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.
Of course, and plenty of people do exactly that. Nothing about hiring a seasonal installer this year makes a permanent install harder next year.
It's a permanent fixture, so yes, it stays. Which is why the sell-soon case above points at seasonal.
Ask before you spend anything. Some HOAs and most condo boards have exterior modification rules, and getting told no afterwards is an expensive way to find out.
It can be, and it depends on numbers only you have: what you pay now, and how long you'll be there. We won't hand you a payback figure built on guesses about your situation.
Priced per linear foot of roofline. Add your address and tell us how much of the house you want lit.
