Every December, somebody calls me from a ladder. Or just off one, still holding a fistful of cracked clips. A guy in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights told me he’d spent three Saturdays in a row rehanging string lights along his parapet, and then a strong gust of wind dropped half a strand into the neighbor’s yard. He was done with bulbs. He wanted to know about Oelo lights and whether the ladder could finally go back in the garage.
What They Look Like With the Power Off
Permanent lights are switched off most of the day, and that’s when your neighbors actually see them. Cheap clip-on track looks like a gutter somebody forgot to paint. Fine at night. Rough at 2 p.m.
Oelo Lights run in a slim channel with an acrylic or metal cover, and we match it to your trim. Pueblo-style homes are trickier, since there’s no real fascia, just a flat roof and a parapet. Sometimes we run the channel along the top lip. Sometimes it looks better tucked under a portal beam, and I won’t know which until I’m standing in your yard.
On smooth white stucco you’ll still see a thin line. Close, not invisible. I’d rather you hear that from me now than spot it yourself in April.
What the App Does Day to Day
Every LED in Oelo Lights can be its own color. The Oelo Evolution app gives you around 16 million of them, plus saved patterns and schedules. Sounds like a gimmick until about the second week.
A household off Tramway has five kids, and the roofline stays warm white most nights, cherry and silver on Lobo game days. Each kid picks the color for their birthday week. Apparently that settled a whole category of arguments.
On Christmas Eve, plenty of people around here go soft amber so the roofline matches their farolitos. Back to white on the 26th. About thirty seconds, from the couch.
How They Handle Albuquerque Sun and Wind
We’re a mile up, and the sun doesn’t leave anything alone. Regular holiday strands go brittle in two or three seasons. Spring wind takes care of whatever’s left.
The LEDs in Oelo Lights are rated IP68 and 100,000 hours. IP68 just means sealed against dust and water, which matters in monsoon season, when a hard storm hits a roof that hasn’t seen rain in weeks.
Honestly, the lights rarely fail first. The connections do. I’ve pulled out other crews’ work where a sloppy splice at a corner held water all summer, and a great LED can’t save a soaked wire.
What You Can Do Yourself
A single-story home usually takes us a day. Two stories or several zones, figure two.
Power is where DIY stops. Oelo Lights need a controller and an outdoor outlet near the roofline, and plenty of older homes don’t have one. Adding a circuit means a licensed electrician and a city permit. If someone’s already coming out for a permanent outdoor decorative lighting installation, have them look at your panel while they’re there. One trip instead of two.
You can mount the channel yourself if you’re steady on a ladder. Clean corners on a stucco parapet are where most people quit and call us.
Get on the Calendar Before the Holidays
Call Red Shovel Landscaping this month if you want Oelo Lights up by December. Our Albuquerque schedule tends to fill by mid-November. Wait, and you’ll string temporary lights one more year, then pay to patch the clip holes in your stucco before we can start.
FAQ
Do oelo lights stay up all year?
Yep. The channel stays on the house and the lights stay in it. Switched off, it just reads as trim. You change what they do from your phone, not from a ladder.
Can I make them come on at sunset by themselves
Yes. Set the schedule once, and give each zone its own times if you want. Most of our clients set it in October and don’t touch it again until Halloween.
Does the sun here fade the lights
Anything plastic takes a beating in Albuquerque’s sun. We put metal covers on south and west walls, where it hits hardest, and acrylic does fine on the shady sides. We’ll tell you which goes where before we start.
How long is the install, like a week?
Nah. Most single-story houses are one day, and bigger ones with a few zones run one to two. If you need an outlet added, the electrician and permit come first, so your start date can slip.
Can I just do the front for now
Plenty of people start that way. It runs in zones, so the front goes up now and the backyard or portal can wait a year. We plan the first install so adding on later doesn’t mean tearing anything out.
Go ahead and lend that ladder to a neighbor. You won’t need it in December.
