3 Years Later: DIY Permanent Holiday LEDs - What worked, what didn't, and what's new?

today on the hookup i'm going to tell you everything that i've learned about permanently installed exterior leds after three years of installation on my own house and helping hundreds of other people complete this project i'm gonna give you some updates on new technology and what i do differently if i was starting my project today it's that time of year where i start getting dozens of emails a week from people who want advice on installing permanent holiday leds on their house my three-part series on the subject has over 250 000 views but those videos are over two years old and it's time to talk about what's changed i'm going to divide up this video into three different sections number one updates on my three-year-old setup including repairs and maintenance that i've had to perform number two problems that i've seen reported by other users and some possible fixes and number three new options that exist and my specific suggestions for setups in the fall of 2020 this video is not intended to be an all-in-one source for your installation but instead a jumping off point to get you all caught up i've got links down in the description for follow-up videos to walk you through each stage of your setup depending on which route you choose to take this video is sponsored by akara and their new g2h indoor wi-fi security camera the g2h is a super unique product that not only offers crisp 1080p video that's compatible with the ios homekit secure video platform but it also acts as a hub for your acara zigbee home automation switches and sensors allowing you to not only add them to the acara app but also to your apple homekit interface the g2h is available now for 69 worldwide and you can check it out using the links in the description to support this channel as of the release of this video in october 2020 my led strips have been installed for 37 months and are currently in their fourth holiday season of use in that time i've needed to make one major repair caused by a lightning strike very close to my house the surge caused by the strike took out my pool pump a tv and a bunch of light bulbs in the house but it also killed all of my outdoor led strips luckily in all the different locations the fix was the same and i just needed to remove the first led in each of the runs which seems to have acted like a fuse and saved the rest other than that my roofline leds have been completely maintenance free the led channels are holding up incredibly well and as expected from aluminum there isn't any sign of corrosion or visible oxidation the plastic diffusers have become slightly more brittle after being exposed to three years the florida sun but they haven't yellowed or cracked on their own inside the channels the ip65 coating on the strips has yellowed significantly and it would be a huge eyesore if it was visible but it doesn't appear to have affected the colors produced by the leds themselves inside my 20 power supplies are still going strong though i did hook them up to a smart outlet to be able to monitor their power consumption and turn them off when they're not in use and that not only helps save power but i also think that it helps extend the life of the strip since there's power running through them at all times even when they're off a question people ask me all the time is after three years of living with these things would i do it again and my answer is a definitive yes i would do it again in a heartbeat however i've talked to quite a few people living in colder climates that have experienced issues with led strips possibly due to constant freeze thaw cycles i've experienced the frustration of failing led strips with my ip67 led landscape lighting where i've had to do small repairs every few months and i can only imagine the headache of needing to do those repairs on a roofline for that reason alone i hesitate to give a blanket recommendation for led strips i can only tell you that for me personally in the warm florida climate my 5 volt ip65 strips in aluminum channels have worked amazingly well it's totally possible that i've only heard from people that have had issues and that there are hundreds of people in cold climates that haven't had any problems so if you're watching this video and you've done a permanent led install on your house please leave a comment with this information so we can all get a better idea of the success and failure rates no matter what if you're worried about cold weather and you want to make repairs easier you might be better off just opting for led strings instead of strips because they can be repaired easier and even without soldering the second problem that people have reported is issues with their power supply introducing noise into the circuit and causing their lights to malfunction as far as i can tell this seems to be a case-by-case basis and is influenced by things like the voltage source at your house and your specific wiring runs my advice go ahead and buy the cheap power supplies and give them a shot if you run into issues you can return them and then upgrade to a more premium power supply made by meanwhile as i said my 20 power supplies are still going strong after three years so i don't really see the need to spend twice as much up front unless you run into issues other than that the majority of questions that i get have to do with issues during software setup and to that end let's talk about the things that have changed and the new options that exist to make your install much easier first for software two years ago i wrote some code called holiday leds 2.0 because i specifically wanted to be able to control multiple outputs and configure segments on my roofline to act independently i wrote that code because there wasn't a better option but i'm telling you right now my code is not the best option a real developer named air cookie has written a fantastic piece of software called wled that he continues to support and add new features to as of the release of this video wled supports segmenting has its own app and can receive e131 data for light shows and in the beta release it's even got support for multiple pin outputs it's a really fantastic piece of software and given another year or so of development it might even be able to replace the traditional led light controllers used in holiday light shows second in my original video i suggested 5 volt ws 2812b led strips and since then a few new strips have made their way to the market including ws2813 ws2815 and sk6812 as i mentioned before in cold climates you might be better off with led strings than strips but if you are going to opt for the strips i would still suggest the 5 volt ws2812b variety due to their significantly lower cost than any other strip type if you really want or need a separate white channel you may want to opt for the sk6812 strips but you should be aware that it could limit you in what software you can use to drive your leds and it could complicate things later on if you want to add to your setup and make a full light show as for the ws2813 i don't think that the backup data channel is worth the extra money and increased voltage drop caused by the smaller power traces on the strip and even though the ws2815 strips are 12 volts meaning you're going to need less power injection points you're still going to need to inject power for runs over 5 meters and they're more than 60 percent more expensive than the ws2812b strips third in my videos i showed how to wire up a nodemcu microcontroller with a logic level shifter to control your lights you can absolutely still follow those instructions and get a working controller but if you want to skip the soldering and wiring and you're willing to shell out about 10 dollars more you can get an overall better solution with the quinn led dig uno which not only has built-in logic shifting voltage regulation and voltage smoothing but it also has a fuse to prevent any dangerous situations caused by shorts in your wiring if you're international you can get them directly from their creator's website quindor and if you're in the us you can get them from dr z's links to both of those are down in the description fourth let's talk about mounting in my original videos i showed a flat profile aluminum channel that can fit the led strip as well as a thin power injection wire i mounted these channels to the drip edge of my roof and to the tops of the gutters using the hardware that came with them and as i said they look great and they worked perfectly for me but there are two new channel types available that might be better for you depending on your install location 45 degree led channels are perfect for mounting under your roof line and a deeper flat profile is also available if you want to run a larger power injection wire through the entire channel if you opt for strings instead of strips two years ago dr z's showed how to make mounts by drilling holes in vinyl siding j-channel from the hardware store but if you're looking for a pre-built more professional looking solution he recently teamed up with the led supplier rgb man to design a product called permatrac which gives you a galvanized steel mounting system for a clean look that's easy to install and easy to fix unfortunately at the time of publishing this video the biggest problem is supply permatrac is currently only available in the us and supply is having trouble keeping up with demand still i've got a link down in the description anyways if you want to check out availability in your specific area and last let's talk about resources not everyone who does diy home automation is interested in permanently installed leds and vice versa but the overlap is pretty significant if you need help getting started on this project there are tons of people out there willing to help if you're willing to do the facebook thing i'd encourage you to ask questions on the hook up home automation group or the dr z's facebook group if you're more comfortable with discord both dr z's and wled have their own channels and you can always leave a comment on my youtube videos and i'm pretty good about responding to any questions especially if you follow these two rules number one make your questions clear and number two don't reply to another comment make sure that you make a new comment so that it shows up in my youtube dashboard if you're really desperate and none of these options work for you you can send me an email but i have to warn you that if i get busy my emails are the first thing that gets neglected thank you so much to my awesome patrons over at patreon for your continued support on my channel if you're interested in supporting my channel please check out the links down in the description if you enjoyed this video please hit that thumbs up button and consider subscribing and as always thanks for watching the hookup you

Channel: The Hook Up

Views: 152,050

Keywords: home assistant, hassio, home automation, hass.io, smart home, diy, electronics, arduino, esp8266, nodemcu, wemos d1, automation

Id: lMnbBMj5XVo

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020