But why should festive lighting be a once-a-year thing?
Plenty of events besides Christmas can be celebrated with colorful lights on your home.
Why not throw up some purple and orange lights for Halloween?
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
Maybe red, white, and blue on July 4th.
Or your favorite team’s colors during a big game.
These lights are easy to install, cuttable, waterproof, and durable.
The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro are smart LED lights that let you customize your outdoor space with 16 million colors and 75 pre-made scene modes. These lights are easy to install, cuttable, waterproof, and durable.
All of this was neatly packaged in three sleeves inside a larger box to keep components separated.
The initial connection process went very smoothly.
Essentially, you just plug the lights in and let the app scan for them.
The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro are smart LED lights that let you customize your outdoor space with 16 million colors and 75 pre-made scene modes. These lights are easy to install, cuttable, waterproof, and durable.
The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro also supports theMattersmart home standard which was not as seamless.
To be honest, though, this is a product that really needs its own app.
Theres not much you’ve got the option to do with it through a third-party app.
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
Installing the lights on my house was pretty easy, as well.
This was a surprise to me.
The VHB tape felt very secure, and I used a bunch of the included clips for extra support.
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
In the couple of months theyve been up, Ive only had one light detach from the eave.
How the lights will fare through the rough Michigan winter has yet to be seen.
One important thing to note is the water resistance of the various parts.
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
The string lights and the chunky power adapter are IP67 rated, while the control box is only IP65.
I’ve seen some users online buyoutdoor electrical boxes, and I will probably do the same.
All in all, I found the entire setup and installation process to be pretty painless.
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
This means youre not limited by the length of the segments.
Still, I had to try the feature out for myself.
Govee includes a wire connector system for waterproofing and safely securing the exposed wire.
The only special equipment needed is a wire cutter/stripper.
Then its just a matter of feeding the wires through a cap and screwing things tight.
Most roof lines are not going to be the perfect length for the segments.
If you were to get permanent lights installed professionally, they’d be trimmed to a custom length.
So, being able to trim the Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro yourself is a huge bonus.
you could choose from 16 million colors, adjust the brightness, and select from 75 pre-programmed scene modes.
Joe Fedewa / How-To Geek
Ultimately, this is what sets the Permanent Outdoor Lights apart from traditional string lights.
Nothing can come close to the color options you have with the Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro.
Govee has included pre-programmed scenes for every occasion you’re free to imagine.
Plus, youre not limited to Govees pre-programmed lighting scenes.
Colors aside, the lights also get very bright thanks to the rating of 50 lumens.
For special occasion lighting, I bumped it up to the full 100% for full effect.
I did have one issue with colors during my testing.
One day, I noticed the LEDs were only lighting up green.
So far, I havent had any issues with the replacement they sent me.
However, this issue is why I’m considering an outdoor electrical box just to be safe.
Unfortunately, the Govee app is not great.
Its honestly a bit overwhelming.
I found myself having trouble remembering where certain features were located.
For example, one of the things you might do is break up the lights into multiple lighting sections.
I stumbled upon this feature once and couldnt figure out how to get back to it again later on.
For some reason, you cant pair the sunrise/sunset trigger with static times in a single automation.
However, I did need to Google a few things to find them in the app.
The aforementioned user-made DIY scenes, for example, are buried deep in the app.
Theres just a lot going on, and its not particularly well organized or designed.
That being said, there is a part of me that appreciates the everything but the kitchen sink approach.
You truly can go wild customizing the lights to beexactlywhat you want.
Right down to the specific color of each individual light.
Should You Buy the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro?
TheGovee Permanent Outdoor Lights Proare available in a few different configurations.
The price for the 100-foot package is $399.99, and its available in white or black.
Theres also a 200-foot version in white or black for $699.
Thats $100 more than the previous non-trimmable model, which is also half as bright.
Theres no getting around the fact that thats a lot of money to spend on purely aesthetic lighting.
However, thats not the comparison you should be making when considering the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro.
The permanent part is a big deal.
I used the lights for Halloween, watching a football game, Christmas, and simple nighttime accent lighting.
The other thing about permanent is you only have to put them up once.
That sounds amazing to anyone who has climbed a ladder to put up Christmas lights.
So far, Ive only had to reapply the one light that I probably didnt install correctly.
I don’t expect them to be maintenance-free, nor should anyone.
The other side effect of having lights on your home year-round is youwilluse them more simply because theyre there.
I love Halloween, but I have never put lights on my house for the holiday.
Its too much of a pain to put up lights for multiple occasions.
Now that the lights are already there, I’ve been finding more reasons to use them.
I can celebrate any little holiday or event I want.
Ifexterior illuminationis a passion of yours, I think the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro are worth the investment.
The possibilities are nearly endless in what you might do with them.
Dealing with a lackluster app is a bummer, but it doesnt detract from how fun these lights are.
Youll instantly become the cool house in the neighborhood.
