By Baer Electric Inc. Published
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If you decorate every year, permanent lights trade a bigger one-time cost for never climbing a ladder in December again. If you decorate now and then, or you mostly light trees, railings and the yard, seasonal strings are still the cheaper and more flexible choice. Here’s how the two compare on the things that matter in northwest Saskatchewan.
The quick comparison
| Compared | Seasonal Christmas lights | Permanent track lights (Gemstone) |
|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Low: a few strings and clips | Higher: a professional install priced by linear footage |
| Each year | Hang in fall, take down in winter | Nothing to hang; pick a scene in the app |
| Ladder work | Twice a season, usually in the cold | Once, on install day, by the installer |
| In daylight | Strings and clips on the eaves | Colour-matched track that blends into the trim |
| Colours | Whatever is on the string | 16 million+ colours plus a dedicated warm white |
| Used for | December, maybe January | Christmas, other holidays, game nights, everyday lighting |
| Where they go | Anywhere: trees, railings, fences | Rooflines (other Gemstone products cover yards, decks and patios) |
| Lifespan | Varies a lot by product and handling | Rated 50,000 hours, about 20 years at 7 hours a day |
| Warranty | Whatever the box says | Lifetime on lights, 10 years on other parts, 1 year labour |
| Who installs | You | An authorized dealer; Gemstone has no DIY option |
Looks
Seasonal lights look like Christmas lights, which is the point. Done carefully, they look great. Done in a hurry in a north wind, you get sagging runs, uneven spacing and a dead section you only notice once you’re back on the ground.
Permanent lights sit in an aluminum track fastened under the soffit and colour-matched to your trim. Gemstone spaces its lights 9 inches apart, so the line is even on every eave, and each light has red, green, blue and a dedicated warm-white diode. In daylight the track is hard to pick out from the street. Gemstone describes it as “hardly visible when the lights are not on.” Up a ladder you’ll see it. From the driveway you mostly won’t.
Safety: the ladder in December
This is the reason most people bring up first. Around here, Christmas lights usually go up in November or December, on a ladder, with frost on the shingles and gloves on your hands. Regional normals for Meadow Lake Airport put the January mean at −16.8 °C, and the weeks before Christmas aren’t much kinder. Then the lights have to come down again, often in January.
Permanent lights move all of that ladder work to one install day, done by someone whose job it is. After that, if a light needs attention, it’s a service call, not a Saturday on the roof. Gemstone’s Christmas page says it plainly: “No more climbing ladders.”
If you’re sticking with seasonal lights, hang them on a dry, calm day, have someone foot the ladder, and stay well clear of the service wires where power comes into the house. Plug into a GFCI-protected outdoor receptacle with a cord rated for outdoor use.
Time
Seasonal lights cost you time twice a year: testing strings, hanging, hunting for the dead bulb, then taking it all down and storing it. Most of the troubleshooting happens outside in the cold.
Permanent lights cost you a consultation and an install day, and Gemstone says most installs are done within a day. After that, your time goes into picking scenes. Autopilot can run free holiday and sports calendars for you, and sunset-to-sunrise timers on the Hub2 controller keep working even if your Wi-Fi drops.
Lifespan and what breaks
Seasonal strings are hard to put a number on. Quality varies widely, and a lot of the wear comes from handling: winding, unwinding, stepped-on bulbs and plugs left sitting in snowbanks.
Gemstone rates its lights for 50,000 hours, which works out to about 20 years at 7 hours a day. The lights are IP67 waterproof, the lights and cables are UV-rated, and each light connects with a threaded, watertight compression fitting. The warranty is lifetime on the lights, 10 years on everything else (power kits, controllers, cables, connectors and track) and 1 year on labour. It has to be registered within 30 days of install. After the first year, a service call may carry a charge unless your dealer covers it, so ask.
Flexibility
Here seasonal lights win. A string goes anywhere: the spruce by the driveway, the deck railing, the fence, the shop. You can change your mind every year.
Permanent roofline lights go on the rooflines. You can change the colours as often as you like, but the lights stay where they were installed. If you want trees and the yard lit too, you either keep a few seasonal strings or add Gemstone landscape flood lights, which run from the same app.
There’s flexibility the other way, though. Permanent lights aren’t only for Christmas. The same roofline can run warm white every night, orange for Halloween, red and white on Canada Day and team colours on game night.
Up-front cost, without the numbers
We don’t put prices in guides, because a number without your house in front of us doesn’t mean much. Gemstone says cost comes down to two things: the linear feet of track your rooflines need, and the local market rate for installation. A bungalow with one simple roofline and a two-storey with six gables are very different jobs.
The trade-off itself is simple. Seasonal lights are cheap to buy but cost you time and ladder work every year, and the strings wear out. Permanent lights are a bigger one-time spend that buys back that time and ladder work, and adds lighting you’ll use well outside December. Running cost is small either way, since both are LED. Gemstone lights draw at most 1 watt each on full bright white, and less on colours.
Who should stick with seasonal lights
Be honest with yourself on these:
- You decorate some years and skip others.
- You mostly light trees, railings and the yard, not the roofline.
- You’re planning to sell soon. Gemstone’s warranty transfers once, with limits, so read the terms first.
- You like hanging them. Plenty of people do.
Permanent lights make the most sense if you decorate every year, you’d like the house lit year-round, or the ladder has become the part you dread.
Bottom line
If you hang lights every year, permanent lights pay you back in time and safety, plus lighting you’ll use all year. For occasional decorators, seasonal strings still make sense. To see how the system works through the holidays and the rest of the year, read our page on permanent Christmas and holiday lights, or ask us to measure your home for a free quote.