Planning Nexillumi permanent outdoor lights

Measure the roofline in sides

Walk the house and write down each stretch of eave you want lit: the front, each side, the garage. One box holds 300 feet as six runs of 50, and the two-sided extension cable joins them into two sides of three runs. A front of 120 feet and a garage of 30 use three runs on one side and one on the other, with two runs to spare for later.

Start from the outlet

The power adapter and the extension cable together reach 8.2 feet, so the first run has to start within that distance of an outdoor outlet. Mark that point first. Everything else is measured from it. Plug into the outlet directly rather than through a chain of cords, the way the Consumer Product Safety Commission asks you to avoid overloading outlets with holiday lights.

Test on the ground

Lay the runs out on the lawn or the driveway, connect them and switch them on before anything goes up. Try the remote and pair the illumi home app now, while every light is within reach. A run that does not light is far easier to swap here than at the roof edge.

Mounting

The box holds adhesive and screws. Each light sits best 2 to 4 inches out from the wall, under the roof edge, where the lens throws a soft cone of light down the siding.

On the ladder

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets out a short list for portable ladders, and it fits a day under the eaves well:

• Keep three points of contact while you climb: two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand.
• Set the base a quarter of the ladder's working length out from the wall, on stable, level ground.
• An extension ladder that reaches the roof edge should stand at least 3 feet above it, and the three top rungs are not for standing on.
• Look up for overhead power lines before you raise a ladder, and keep a metal ladder away from them.

A helper on the ground who holds the ladder and hands up each run makes the whole thing faster as well as safer.

Once they are up

From now on the remote and the illumi home app switch them from inside the house, white on ordinary evenings and color when the season calls for it. The lights, cables, adapter and controller are sealed to IP67 and rated from -22°F to 140°F, so they stay up through the winter and the summer that follows.