Permanent holiday lighting in Albuquerque
Christmas is the reason people buy this. Halloween, the Fourth, Fiesta week and the night the Lobos are on are the reasons they tell their neighbors about it.
The Albuquerque calendar, lit
Same hardware every time. The only thing that changes is which saved scene you tap. How that works.
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March
St Patrick’s Day
Green, for one evening, without owning a single green decoration. The lowest-effort holiday participation available to a homeowner.
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May & September
Cinco de Mayo & Fiestas
Red, white and green down the roofline. In this city that reads as belonging rather than decorating, and it costs you a tap.
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July
Fourth of July
Red, white and blue alternating. Set it on the first, leave it for the week, put it back afterwards. Nobody has been on a ladder in 95-degree heat.
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October
Balloon Fiesta
Orange, yellow and red. Fiesta week is when half the city has visitors, and a lit house at 5am when everyone leaves for the field is a genuinely good look.
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October
Halloween
Orange and purple, low and slow. This is the one trick-or-treaters actually comment on, and it is up for the whole month instead of one night.
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Any Saturday
Game day
Cherry and silver, or whatever your household argues about. Also works for a graduation, a birthday, a new baby, or a team color you are being loyal to out of habit.
Every one of those is a saved preset on the same system you bought for Christmas, running the rest of the time as everyday warm white.
The taste conversation, which somebody has to have
Color-changing roofline lighting can look extremely good or extremely cheap, and the difference is almost entirely restraint. Since we are the ones handing over the app, here is the advice we give every customer, whether or not they ask for it.
Keep the brightness down. Full output is a December setting. For the other eleven months, most people end up running well under half, and it immediately looks more expensive.
Static beats flashing. A slow fade or a still color reads as architectural. Rapid flashing reads as a used-car lot, and it will irritate you before it irritates the neighbors.
Two colors, not six. Orange and purple is Halloween. Orange, purple, green, blue, pink and white is a mess. The systems people still love in year five are the ones set up with a bit of discipline in year one.
Set an off time. Nothing switches a neighbor from admiring to annoyed faster than a color show at two in the morning. Dusk to eleven is the setting almost everyone lands on.
Color on some parts, white on others
Because the points are individually addressable, you do not have to commit the whole house to a holiday. A common and very effective compromise: warm white along the main roofline all year, color only on the entry, the portal or the front gable. You get the seasonal signal without the house shouting, and it settles most household disagreements about whether December should be red and green or tasteful. The hardware reason that is possible.
Questions about scenes and scheduling
How many scenes can I save?
Far more than you will use. In practice households settle on somewhere between six and ten saved scenes and then rotate them for years. We set up your first few with you at handover so you have working examples to copy rather than a blank app.
Can it change automatically on the right dates?
Scheduling is the whole point. Scenes run on timers, typically dusk to a set hour. How far ahead you can schedule specific calendar dates depends on the controller, and we will show you exactly what yours does at handover rather than promising something on a web page.
Is the flashing going to annoy my neighbors?
It can, if you let it. Fast flashing patterns get old for everyone within about three nights, including you. Our honest advice, which we give at every handover: run static color or a slow fade, keep the brightness down outside December, and set an off time. It looks more expensive that way too.
Do people actually use it outside Christmas?
More than they expect to. The pattern we see is that the first year is mostly Christmas plus warm white, and by the second year the household has found Halloween, a birthday scene, Fiesta week and at least one sports team. The Christmas case is what sells it; the other eleven months are what people talk about.
One system, every holiday on the calendar
Tell us about the house and we will come measure it. You get a real number for your actual roof, not a guess off a satellite photo.
- Backed by a 15-year warranty.
- Albuquerque metro only. We are not a franchise routing you to a subcontractor.
- Every estimate is measured on site, in person, before you get a number.
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