As the title states, I’m installing our 150ft Govee Permanent Outdoor Light kit tomorrow. I know the instructions say to install on the eaves, quite close to the wall (5cm). I saw a YouTube video suggesting their preference quite a bit further out. Just wondering how far out from the wall people mounted them, and/or if there’s a common recommendation here.

Thanks!

I recently installed the Govee 100 ft Permanent Lights Pro. Here's my install process:

I tested a few strands of the lights just taped under the soffits to see how it would look during the day and night. The white lights really stuck out during the day against my beige soffits and I thought they looked awful, so I considered returning them. I'm glad though that I kept them and found some ways to make them less noticeable during the day.

I spent A LOT of time searching for ways to hide the lights and make the cords neater. I initially picked up some siding trim at home depot that I could hide the wires in. It looked ok, but was A LOT of work to cut just right to fit the lights. I also thought it would make the install a lot more difficult and time consuming - making sure the trim was cut perfectly around corners as well as installing on the 2nd level roof line. So I gave up on that method and decided to just paint the lights and wires.

Painting the lights and wires worked out pretty well. I bought some Sico Perma Flex spray paint that matched my soffits pretty well. I'd recommend the paint: it had a very nice finish on the lights, my only complaint is that it's mostly thinner in the can and the color was very thin. I needed two coats to cover the lights properly and needed 2 cans to cover the 100 ft of lights in two coats.

Before I painted the lights, I tried stretching the cords out so that they would lay flatter (recommended by somebody else on here). I ended up pulling the sections of cord across a pen (sort of like how you curl ribbons). It worked ok, still wasn't completely flat, but I think better than it was out of the box.

To prep for painting I put a piece of masking tape over the glass on each light and then cut it out with an x-acto knife. Then I layed some cardboard down in the garage, duct taped some pieces of wood to each end, and ran the lights back and forth across the cardboard, holding them in place with some hammer in cable clips. I sprayed them with two coats of paint. I also sprayed all the accessories at the same time (hammer in light clips, extension cables, wire couplers that come with the pro kit).

Before installing them I also got some 3M Scotch double sided transparent mounting tape and placed it on the back of the wire. 3 small pieces per wire. This was to hold to the wire flat against the soffits for a cleaner install. This worked ok. It didn't always stick/stay stuck, but for the most part it did (it's meant for inside use only). Hopefully it continues to stick. I had thought about using the Gorilla double sided tape, but heard that once it's stuck it's never coming off - and I didn't want to wreck my soffits if this ever has to come down. Also, I applied the double sided tape just before I was about to install the section of lights, as pulling the backing off the double sided tape would have been difficult on a ladder, so I pulled it off as I applied it to the wire.

Before installing them I measured the length of the peaked sections of the roof to determine how many lights would fit on each side, and then I started installing at the peak with the center of the wire right at the peak, to ensure the lights would line up on each side of the peak. Then I just started sticking them up one at a time. I made sure to install it on a warm day so that the stickers would stick. I used windex and paper towels to clean and then dry the soffit just before sticking the lights up. I used a deck of cards (also recommended by somebody else on here) as a spacer, to keep a consistent distance between the house and the lights. I pushed each light against the soffit for at least 30 seconds, to ensure it stuck. While pushing the light, I'd also be pushing the cable against the soffits to stick it with the double sided tape.

For the most part it went up pretty easily. There were a couple of places where I couldn't stretch the cable out completely and had to tuck it towards the house. It bothered me at the time, but after everything is done, it's not that noticeable. The hardest part was probably a section of the 2nd story roof that I couldn't reach a ladder to. I ended up having to go on the roof and stick it by reaching under the roof. Not fun and slightly terrifying, but it did work.

I used the screw in clips at the ends of each roof section/wherever the wire turned. I had to get my own self tapping screws for the aluminium soffits, the ones that came with it were useless. I made sure the screw heads were also spray painted so that they didn't stick out.

I needed 2 extra lights on the lower level and 3 extra lights on the upper level that I cut from my last strand of lights. The included couplers for this worked really well and made it easy to cut/join.

Also I wanted to plug things in inside my garage, but the end of the controller cable was REALLY big - I'd have to make a large hole in my soffits to run it through. Instead I decided to cut the cable near the controller, so that could run the wire only through a tiny hole in the soffits. Then I rejoined it inside the garage using an extra coupler that came with the kit.

If I knew how much time i'd spend to get these up, i'm not sure I would have bought them (though honestly probably most of the time was spent researching the different ways others have installed them and agonizing over the best method). But they do look great now and i'm happy with them. Hopefully this can help others with their install.