GoveePermanent Outdoor Lights 2, 100ft RGBIC Outdoor Lights with 72 LED Lights, IP67 Waterproof, 100 Scene Modes with 40lm White for Outdoor Decorations, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, White

Okay, buckle up if you are prepared for a long "how to" story of success (so far!)I must admit that I was a little hesitant of the idea of putting up what is touted as "permanent outdoor lights," especially ones that were in the $400-$600 range. My wife and I had gotten quotes from outdoor lighting companies that professionally install outdoor permanent lights for $10k-14kI These quotes from the professional companies include custom aluminum channels/rails that their lights fit within under the eves. Needless to say, there is no way that we were going to spend that kind of money on permanent outdoor lighting (as our list of other items to spend $10k-$14k on is long and distinguished, not to mention the fact one needs to have the extra $10k-14k lying around to spend on frivolous items in the first place!). The trade off... The permanent outdoor lighting installation from the professional company gets you a professional aesthetic look (no wires showing, each light in a metal channel up under the eve of your house) and you usually get a longer warranty. Okay, I get it... With the cheaper system that I chose, the trade off is no clean metal channel that hides the cabling and the lights themselves. That said, the overall finished look (black lights/cable on a brown house) is hardly noticeable from the street. THAT'S ABOUT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE!!!! The cheaper system I went with does everything that the $10k-$14 does at a fraction of the price!!!So when we ran across the Govee outdoor permanent lighting system, I must admit I was a little skeptical, but also intrigued. I went and did some investigative work on reviews and usage, etc. The reviews were really good overall, but seeing is believing, so we decided to pull the trigger and order a set. We ordered the Govee Outdoor Permanent Light 2 150ft set. As an FYI. the Pro series allows the set to be spliced/extended to a point. I ended up not having to do any splicing, so we went with the 2 series, but I did use 2 of the extension cables that came with the kit. The 150ft is based upon me walking/measuring off what we needed for our house. I would strongly recommend measuring the amount that you will need for your home before ordering, common sense, right???... As an FYI... At the time of this post, Govee makes a 100ft, 150ft, and 200ft kits (the 200ft kit comes with an extra power supply that is needed to power the additional 50ft of lighting over the 150ft kit). ALL of these kits function exactly the same, regardless of the length that you choose.The 150ft 2 kit consist of 9 separate strands that connect with weather resistant plugs that make up the 150ft kit. (There are also some extension cable that are included in this set as well). There are a total of 90 actual lights (or 10 lights per strand). I love this idea so that if/when a strand ever goes out, you can replace that single strand as opposed to having to replace the entire system because of them all being one long strand. In addition, the installation process was way easier installing 1 of the 9 strands at a time instead of having to deal with all 150ft of cabling at one time.It is also worthy to note that the lights on each strand are spaced out further than a typical strand of outdoor generic Christmas light strands. Don't let this be of any concern, as the extra spacing doesn't affect the lighting coverage at all.The first thing that I did when I got my kit was install the Govee App on my phone and set up the controller onto my wireless home network. To do this, I only connected 1 strand of lights to the controller so that I could verify that things were working properly. This process was extremely easy, if you are intimidated/challenged of connecting electronic equipment to your wireless network, Govee has just about made it idiot proof. Once I was able to control the lights through the Govee App, I then connected and tested each strand separately to the controller to verify that each strand worked as it should. I did it this way because I didn't want to deal with all 150ft of cabling at once, especially since I wasn't ready to install the lights.I must say that these lights are bright and colorful. WOW!!! I was very impressed with the light output (brightness), the vivid colors, the selection of colors, and the special effects!!! So the next thing that I did was an experiment with the placement of the lights themselves up on the eve of my house. The key to remember is that these permanent lights are designed to shoot downward on your house, so the majority of the lighting effect is the light reflecting off of your house and not from the bulb directly (as in a traditional strand of Christmas lights). So if you place the lights under the eve closer to the wall of your home, the effect will be a brighter but smaller coverage area of the light hitting your home. By the same token, if you place the lights out further under the eve, further from your home, the lighting effect will be a wider area of light hitting your home, but it won't be as bright, make sense?I took one strand and used painter's blue masking tape to tape the lights under the eve to see what they would look like up close to the house. They were indeed brighter, but the area of light coverage of each light was too small in my opinion. I then moved them out a little further away (under the eve) from my house and found the sweet spot of coverage and brightness that I liked. The Govee instructions also recommends the placement/distance of the lights under the eve of the house at approximately 8cm +/-. I am close to that measurement, but didn't actually measure every light to make sure.Here's one of the most important parts of this post... The Govee lights come with a double sided/pressure sensitive piece of tape behind each fixture so that you can peel the protective covering and stick the light directly to your house. I am a little disappointed with Govee thinking that this is any type of permanent mounting solution. Let me just say, there is absolutely NOTHING permanent about the idea of sticking any type of tape to the outside of your house and having any hope of it lasting for any long period of time. If you think that you will be the exception to this rule... Well, good luck with that!! Almost all of the reviews that I read prior to my purchasing this kit say the same thing.So what are you supposed to do? I found out that purchasing 3-D printed 3rd-part plastic mounts that are customer designed to fit the Govee sets was worked best for me. These mounts vary in pricing all over the place (as well as types). I looked on Amazon and they do sell them, but the lead time from the sellers that I found at the time was going to be several weeks (due to the pre-Christmas demand of everyone wanting to hang their lights before the Christmas season). So I ended up purchasing a set off of eBay for approximately $125.00 (as they had them immediately in stock to ship). Yes, this is an added cost that you should factor in your total expense. However, in the grand scheme of things, these mounts are absolutely the ticket, especially if you have any intention of leaving these lights up all year long like I do.The 3rd party mounts I used fit each light perfectly and I used small screws to fasted each light to the eves. One might say, but I don't want to make holes in my eves!?! Okay, good luck with the double sided tape solution... I did use the double sided tape that comes on the back of each Govee light to initially stick the light to the eve. I stuck about 3 lights at a time to the eves as a placement/positioning guide. Once the lights were stuck on my eve with the double sided tape, I would then go back and place the 3rd part mounts over each light/cables. The 3rd party mounts I used are designed to go over each fixture after they are stuck to the eve. I will say that throughout this process, I learned first hand that indeed the double sided tape on the back of each Govee fixture (even for the brief time I used it to position each light temporarily) didn't hold up, as I had several lights fall away from off of my eves. (Okay, in complete fairness, I also didn't scrub/clean/wash every location under my eves where each light was going to go, as I knew I was going to be using the 3rd party mount).Also, because I am an OCD nerd, I also installed a little wire clamp between the middle distance of each light to hold the wire against the eve of my house. Why you may ask? Well, I wanted to make sure that the wire would not sag as the temps become warmer as well as I didn't want to put any extra strain on the wiring between each light. (In my own head, I would like to think that this might be a way to prolong the life span of my lighting kit, the reality is that I know that it is probably way overkill).I confirmed with Govee that multiple outdoor 2 sets can't be physically linked together. So if you have a big house (or big dreams) and want to use more than one Govee kit, you can't physically connect all of them together. The cool work around to this dilemma is that the Govee App allows you to create your own custom lighting scenes (which is super easy to do - another conversation). Once you create a custom scene you can select that custom scene among your different Govee light kits that are all using the same Govee App. Once you do this, then the App allows you to set timers for all of your different kits, which you can set all of your sets to come on/off at the same time on a schedule (again super easy to do).I am doing this with my permanent outdoor 2 set on my house as well as one 50ft and one 150ft Govee outdoor ground lights in my front yard. They all do the same scene, at the same, are Alexa controlled, come on/off automatically, and my neighbors are all blown away!!Final thoughts - In my part of the country, the Christmas light installers charge approximately $600 for the first year to provide and install a normal, plain-Jane, static set of Christmas lights that only do one color (or two static colors every other color - green/red as an example). This price for the first year also includes them removing the lights after the Christmas season. Each year thereafter they charge approximately $200-$300 to do the same. Based on this pricing, we decided that we would give the Govee set (and 3rd party mounts) a test to see actually how long they will last. Even if the Govee set only last a year, then it is still almost the same cost as it would be to pay a Christmas light installer to install a static set the first year AND.... IT IS WAY, WAY COOLER!!!!If the Govee kit makes it longer than the first year, well then it is a huge added bonus for me in that I don't have to install/take down lights for hopefully a long time. AND... I have a set of outdoor lights that are as cool looking as the $10k - $14k lights at a fraction of the cost. I plan on using them for special events (Valentines Day, St. Patty's Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) and just as normal "white" lights to accent my house throughout the year.A side note, I only plan on using my Govee ground lights during the Christmas season, as I want to prolong the lifespan of those sets as long as I can (even though Govee states that these are also "permanent" lights too). If you made it this far, I hope that this information helps you in your decision making process. I will update if/when I have any issues with these lights.Happy Govee-ing everyone!!

work really well once you figure out installation. with lighting products, the accompanying app makes the difference. The Govee app is on par with the Hue app.

I should have written a review for this product when we first got it but I guess better late than never. work's great I haven't had any issues with it, it was easy to install and it's a great conversation piece believe it or not

Made an agreement with the wife on these... if we bought them, our overall exterior holiday decorating would go from several trees and wreathes and the house lights and inflatables, to just the permanent lights and inflatables. Best arrangement ever.These things are so cool. In our area, it was a little difficult to find someone to hang them on the second story gables of my house (dont have a ladder long enough to reach), but once we found the right person they went up quickly.I hung up the lights on our first story, and spliced the connection piece to where the second story strings needed to start. Govee doesn't sell additional extenders, so if you're doing it yourself prepare to check out YouTube. It was pretty simple, but I was very careful because I wanted it done right and didn't want to mess with the ladder again fixing my mistake. Four months of continued use in weather from 70 degrees to -15 and they're still perfect.The 3M adhesive works as it should, but make sure you reinforce with the brackets on any change of direction, otherwise you'll be back up on the ladder making a fix.Only other suggestion I would make is to offer a marketplace where you can download lighting programs that others have made. The app is a little tough to manage when you're trying to create your own scheme, but that is something I assume could come with time.