Permanent Christmas lights are all the rage in 2024. They make your home shine brighter than your neighbor's traditional Christmas lights. They can display millions of colors and countless animations, patterns, and shades.
Permanent Christmas lights can be controlled with a phone app. Some of them can be programmed to sync with music and be activated with voice control. They are weather-proof, long-lasting, and durable. They make traditional Christmas lights pale in comparison.
You may be struggling to decide if you should go with do-it-yourself permanent Christmas lights or choose to have a professional installation. But, it's an important decision to make, and choosing all willy-nilly could lead to major problems. These may include costly mistakes, poor installations, electrical problems, and safety issues.
With that being said when done safely and correctly, DIY lights can save you some decent money. But, are you up for the challenge? We’ll help you decide. Lux Lights has installed millions of lights for thousands of happy customers, and they will be the first to tell you, we know our stuff!
After reading this article you will be able to identify if do-it-yourself permanent Christmas lights are something you really want to do, or if it’s something you would rather watch other people do on HGTV while you are sipping hot chocolate in the comfort of your living room. Topics covered here include:
- Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights
- A Guide To Installing Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights
- Are Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights Right For You?
Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights
If you are a go-getter and consider yourself a hardcore DIY specialist, installing your own permanent Christmas lights may be for you. Before you attempt to do this please note, that it is not easy and will require a significant amount of time to complete the project.
A Guide To Installing Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights
1. Get The Required Supplies For Installing Your Permanent Christmas Lights
First things first. You are going to need to buy all the required supplies. You'll need to get LED lights (12V LEDs are a popular choice for these projects), a power cord, a light controller, a power supply, a channel, an appropriate-sized drill bit, and some metal screws. Depending on the brand of lights you buy, you may need some other items during your journey, but for now, this gives you pretty much everything you will need.
2. Practice Your Permanent Christmas Lights Installation
Before you start putting holes in the side of your house, it is highly advised that you do a practice installation session in your shed, garage, or chosen workspace. This will allow you to test everything and make sure that all the components work. It will also allow you to ensure everything fits together. This is an important step to complete before you start the final installation.
3. Prep The LED Lights
Once you have obtained your chosen LED lights, locate the male connector and female connector on each end of the lights. The female connector should have two extra wires (+ and a ground.
You may or may not need these extra wires later depending on how your installation goes and the requirements of the components you have selected. From here, the first step is to cut off the male connector on the first strand. This will give you the ability to connect it to your power supply.
4. Connect Your LEDs To The Power Supply
Once you have cut off the male connector, there will be three wires. The color coding of your wires may be different from the next DIYer, but they should be appropriately labeled. For the most part, the red wire is (+) positive. The blue wire is (-) negative, and the remaining wire (which should be white or green) is the data wire.
Now, you will need to connect the positive and negative wires to your power supply. There should be indicators on the power supply for both +/-. It is extremely important that you do not confuse one for the other. The data wire will have to be connected to the controller later on in the process.
5. Connect The Data Wire To The Controller
Now that your LED lights are connected to the power supply, it’s time to connect the wire for data to the controller mechanism. The controller is essentially the mind of your lights. First, click your controller into a breadboard. The breadboard is just a module that allows you to plug wires easily into the controller without having to solder them.
This will make it much easier to connect the wires. Next, attach the data wire to the appropriate pin on your controller.
6. Install Permanent Christmas Lights Software
To control the lights, you will need to install the appropriate software. Various permanent Christmas lights software can be downloaded on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. This will allow you to select the colors, animations, shading, and other settings of your lights.
7. Transfer The Permanent Christmas Lights Software To The Controller
The next step is to copy your chosen software into your controller. This can be done by connecting the controller via USB to your computer. You will need a program such as ESPhome Flasher to move the software to the controller.
8. Permanent Christmas Lights Practice Session #2
Prior to connecting anything to your house, you need to complete another practice session. Make sure that your power supply, controller, and power cord are well connected to your LED lights. Test everything to make sure it is working properly.
9. Secure The Controller And Power Supply
Test everything and make sure it's working the way it’s supposed to. Now you need to secure the controller, and power supply to your home. Either attach them to the inside of your garage and then run wires outside or put them in a weatherproof box (such as a plastic container) on the outside of the house.
10. Place The Permanent Christmas LED Lights
Before you start going full “Tim the tool man Taylor” on your lights, choose where you want your LEDs to go. You will want to have the lights pointing outward or downward. If pointing outward, the lights will be more intense and won’t be good for accent lighting. If facing downward, you will have a softer glow, perfect for accenting the architecture of your home.
11. Drill Holes For Your Permanent Christmas Lights In The Channel
Use an appropriately sized drill bit to add holes to the channel. Ensure that the distance from one hole to the next matches the distance between your LEDs with a little bit of slack so there isn't consistent tension.
12. Connect The Channel To Your House
Measure then cut the channel to fit under your soffit. Next, use the metal screws to attach it to the house. DON’T drill into the gutters.
13. Insert The LED Lights
Place the LEDs in the holes you cut in the channel. Hide the wires in the back of the channel. You may want to use electrical or weather-resistant duct tape to properly hide the wires.
14. Connect Multiple Permanent Christmas Light LED Strands
Depending on the type of controller you are using, you may be able to run multiple LED strands from it. In the next step, you have to connect one strand to the following strand using the connectors located on the ends of your lights. If you need to complete a row, simply cut the wires and secure them with weather-resistant tape.
15. Moving Permanent Christmas Lights Between Roof Lines
If you want to run lights between multiple roof lines, you will need to start a separate strand from the controller. If the controller is placed far away, use a three-strand extension cable to connect the controller to the new LEDs.
16. Fixing Dim And Flickering Permanent Christmas Lights
You might notice that some of your LEDs are flickering or dimly lit. If that is the case you might have to get more power into the strands that are farthest away from your power supply. Simply, connect a two-strand extension cable directly from the power supply to the end of your LED lights.
You have now completed your DIY permanent Christmas lights installation!
Are Do It Yourself Permanent Christmas Lights Right For You?
After reading this article, you should have a good idea if the DIY approach is for you or not. If you feel that this is a challenge that you can not only accept but conquer, DIY permanent Christmas lights are a good fit for your get-it-done approach.
However, if reading this article has induced any form of anxiety, dread, or fear, it's best advised that you leave the installation process to the professionals. If that is where you are heading, your next step is to find the right permanent Christmas lights company for your needs.
To begin that process, you will want to read this companion article The Top 5 Best Permanent Christmas Lights Companies In Utah. With the information in the article, you will be able to find the perfect vendor with the permanent Christmas lights solution that is best suited for your home.
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