In the middle of winter, many of us risk life and limb to climb across our roofs putting up and taking down holiday lights. Govee, a company that specializes in smart home technology, thinks its new permanent lights might be the answer. The idea is you put up its smart LED lights once (preferably when it’s not icy and cold out) and then adjust how they look from within the Govee app to change things up throughout the year.
As with all things Govee, the results are a little chaotic. Overall, there is a lot of potential with these lights, and the user is given an enormous amount of control over how the lights look and act, from dancing green lights in sixty shades of green for St. Patrick’s, to a simple warm white glow for the rest of the year. With sound reactivity, millions of colors, and the ability to individually control each “bulb,” the possibilities are limitless.
Professional level build and flexibility
First, it’s worth noting these lights are getting a lot of support from actual professional installers, who share plenty of tips and tricks on Reddit. The permanent lights come in cord colors of black or white, and kits of 100 and 200 feet, so you can pick the kit that works best for your home.
A few notable things distinguish these from regular holiday lights. These lights require connection to a hefty power base, so you can’t break the strings of lights into multiple sets. In fact, string more than five lines together (and kits include far more than five, so you will) and you’ll have to attach a chunky driver they include inline.
Credit: Amanda Blum
What is nice about this kit is that Govee expects you to cut and splice the lights as you need, and provides connectors for that purpose. However, the company doesn’t provide wyes or tees for branching the lights in different directions, as they expect you to always string the lights in succession. I found a workaround on YouTube, but it makes sense they want the lights in a line. These smart lights use all kinds of logic for their patterns, so when you split them, the system doesn’t realize there are different branches of lights.
Completely different from other holiday lights
The lights themselves are set about 12 inches apart and aren’t shaped like any other holiday lights. You can ditch the plastic clips you buy online, as the set includes all the clips you’ll need specifically for these lights. The lights are small squares of LED color, and they come with sticky 3m tape attached to each that, so far, has been surprisingly resilient through a Pacific Northwest winter. The strings themselves are IP67 waterproof with an IP65 power base. You also don’t place them where normal lights go: These are meant to go under eaves or your gutters, aiming down. Think of each as a tiny 50-lumen downlight, meant to shine a cone of color onto the house wall.
Your kit comes with a few components: The lights themselves, broken into multiple strings, each with waterproof, screw-on connections. There are a few extension pieces, so you can jump from one floor to another without lights, if need be. Each of the lights has a 3m sticker already, but they include a substantial number of extras, so you can move them if need be. However, treat these like a permanent installation. I was able to get the stickers off using a metal edge, but those buggers had moved in for life.
You can, of course, space the lights as far apart as the wire will allow, but I spaced them closer since it’s a small house. I also followed a popular tip, which was to cover the cord with either wood or a cord cover for a nice, clean look. We also ran the lights up onto the roof out of curiosity how they’d look. In darkness, the result ranges from breathtaking to outrageous, based on the scene I choose. Over the last two weeks, I’ve had endless neighbors stop to gush about the lights.
Matter, wifi, and Bluetooth support
Govee has the edge on a lot of smart tech companies by being very Matter-forward in their products, which makes adding new devices to the app a breeze. Changes to the lights take place via Bluetooth, so you need to be in range, but I haven’t experienced any issues connecting, even in situations where other devices in the same area have failed.
A million app options allow for great control but a confusing UI
The app experience with Govee products is always a struggle. I found it difficult to navigate the app, specifically when I was looking to affect specific aspects of the lights. There are so many (almost too many) possibilities to choose from, plus more options hidden in sub-menus and tabs I didn’t expect. Govee offers a plethora of ways to affect the lights, so the best advice is to start hitting buttons and trying things out. It took a week or so before I really started to understand how the app works. Since you’ll never be replacing a bulb again, you can focus on throwing creativity at the color, motion, brightness and reactivity.
Credit: Amanda Blum
Although you will not lack for pre-programmed color and motion schemes, none of them are that tasteful, so you’ll likely want to create your own. Remember: instead of one light color or even four or five light colors, you can now create an entire rainbow ombre across one string with gradients. These lights support RGBWW, which means in addition to the RGB spectrum, you get two true whites at the same time—a warm and cool. You can choose pastels versus vivids, or choose from 60 different purples. You can customize every single light on a string. While you can do some limited editing of pre-existing scenes, the best way to create your own is to go to the “DIY” tab and create a brand new scene. Here, you can assign a color to every single light and add in motion effects.
Sound reactivity, motion, and brightness
These lights have a built in microphone, so they can be sound reactive. Pre-programmed reactive scenes were fun, but garish and migraine-inducing to my neighbors. Using the DIY function, I was able to create a few scenes using sound reactivity that were quite soothing and beautiful. A soft white that just lightly twinkled occasionally, and a pastel rainbow that color shifted. It turns out that Govee has a massive community building more usable scenes, which anyone can explore in the Discover menu.
Credit: Amanda Blum
You don’t have to use the sound reactivity, of course. If you prefer, you can leave the lights on a soft motion of your choosing or simply leave them static. You can affect the overall brightness and even the brightness of the lights relative to each other. You can tell the house which “bulbs” sit on the corner of the house so they’re designated different colors or motion—the theme here is that you can really do almost anything, it just takes some dedication to finding the right solution in the Govee app.
It is worth mentioning that there are a variety of tools Govee offers in the app, from AI bots that will take color schemes from a picture, or generate a scene based on a phrase you give it. I found most of them to be unhelpful, but I may not have tapped into the right tool yet.
Smart features like automation and scheduling
Govee has tons of integrations with other smart home technologies, so you can use the Govee app or your preferred home assistant (Google or Alexa, anyways) to schedule the lights, involve them in automations, etc. You can also group these bulbs with other Govee bulbs so they all use the same scene automatically, in time with each other.
Govee also offers the permanent lights in a standard version, which only lacks a few key features of the Pro version. Notably, the lights can’t be cut and spliced, and they only support RGB, so you’re not getting as many shades of white. You also can’t get black wires (just white), they’re about half as bright, and they lack Matter support. What they have going for them is price: The Govee Permanent Lights Pro are $399.99 for 100 feet, vs. $299.99 for the standard version.
Bottom line: reliable strings you never have to install again
I do not celebrate Christmas, and have always enjoyed being able to avoid putting up lights. However, I have discovered through testing these lights how absurdly happy they make people—my neighbors, kids, even me, a qualified Grinch. I’d feel very differently about static bulbs, but these are like turning your whole house into an interactive game. I quite enjoy standing in my driveway playing around with the colors on the fly, and have been playing music outside for the lights to dance to. The immediate neighbors are all in love with them.
Sure, the Govee app is subpar, but it still offers tons of way to create interactive scenes. The lights are solid, beefy, and seem up to the task of surviving winter, plus they’re backed by a 3-year warranty. In the past, I’ve found Govee customer service to be nimble and helpful.
These lights installed with two people in less than an hour. While decidedly not cheap, I think these are worth the investment if you routinely set up holiday lights and consider the price of your time installing, uninstalling, and untangling every year. They’ll serve you year-round, you’ll find reasons to celebrate all kinds of holidays (I honestly cannot wait for Pride) and in the grand scheme of absurd expenditures on holiday decor, these will stand the test of time much better than an inflatable reindeer.
Source: LifeHacker – These Smart Holiday Lights Are Designed to Stay up All Year Long