What a Permanent Lighting Warranty Visit Actually Looks Like: A Mountain Brook Service Call

What a Permanent Lighting Warranty Visit Actually Looks Like: A Mountain Brook Service Call

The call came in mid-September. A homeowner in Mountain Brook said his lights were out. His is a large two-level home with permanent outdoor lighting on both the upper and lower rooflines, and if you live in Birmingham you may have seen it already. It was the house in our recent ad, the one shown in four different seasonal looks.

Every permanent lighting buyer eventually asks what happens when something goes wrong. Most companies answer that with a warranty page. This is a real call instead, start to finish, in the order it happened.

What We Checked First, and What We Found

A dark system usually comes down to power, a tripped circuit, or a controller that has lost touch with the app, so those get checked before anything else. On this call, our crew pulled in, talked with the homeowner, and turned the system on.

It lit. Both levels, every run.

A power surge had hit the house at some point and reset the controller. The controller came back up on its own and the system had been working ever since. Nobody had switched it on to check after the surge, so as far as the homeowner knew, it was still broken. "It actually ended up not needing to be repaired," our owner said afterward.

That's not a knock on the homeowner. Nobody tests something they already believe is broken, and from the street a system that is switched off looks exactly like one that is dead. It's also the reason the short checklist at the end of this post exists.

Why a Surge Can Knock a Controller Offline in Birmingham

The controller holds the schedules, colors and zones, and it usually lives in the garage. Like any piece of electronics, it can be reset by a sudden spike in voltage.

Central Alabama gives it plenty of chances. UAB's emergency management office puts the Birmingham area at about 75 thunderstorm days a year and notes that storms can form in any month, not only spring and summer. The National Weather Service office in Birmingham points out that lightning can strike as far as 10 miles from the storm that produced it.

Lightning isn't the whole story, though, and we'd be guessing if we blamed this one on the weather. The Electrical Safety Foundation International reports that 60 to 80 percent of power surges start inside the home, from things like loose connections and overloaded circuits. Outside sources include lightning, utility grid switching and power coming back after an outage. We don't know which one hit this house. We know the controller reset and came back without damage.

If you want to cut the odds, surge protection is a separate piece of equipment. ESFI notes that breakers, GFCI outlets and typical power strips don't stop surges, and the state's ReadyAlabama preparedness site lists surge protectors as part of getting a home ready for storm season. Protection at the panel is a job for a licensed electrician, and it covers a lot more than your roofline.

Checking Both Levels: The Full Permanent Outdoor Lighting Inspection

The problem the homeowner called about was already solved. Our crew inspected the whole system anyway. "We basically did a full system inspection while we were there," is how our owner described it, and on this house that is real work: two levels of roofline, a lot of linear feet, and plenty of peaks and transitions where a run changes direction.

Here is why that matters on a house like this one. A track fault is small. A single light sitting out of line in a run that long, up on a second-story eave, is nearly impossible to pick out from the driveway, and a lot of Mountain Brook rooflines sit high and behind hardwoods, which makes it harder still. The only reliable way to know a big two-level system is right is to go up and look at it a section at a time.

That is how the two lights turned up.

Lights Pushed Up Into the Track: What It Looks Like and How It Is Fixed

On a permanent track system, each light sits in a channel that runs along the roofline. A light that takes pressure from below can get pushed back up into the track. Once it is up in there, it sits recessed above the others. Depending on how far it goes, it can look dim, disappear from view at ground level, or just break up a line that is supposed to be even.

There were two on this house. The homeowner had no way of spotting them from the yard, and they hadn't been part of the call. The inspection caught them.

The fix is quick for a crew with the right setup. We dropped that section of track down, popped both lights back into position, and put the track back up. Two lights, back in line with the rest of the run.

If you're curious how the track attaches to the house in the first place, our post on how permanent lighting mounts to fascia and soffit without touching the roof covers it.

While the ladder was out, the crew also reset a loose brick up high and took down a wasp nest. Neither one had anything to do with lighting. They were just there.

What the Warranty Covered, and What That Means If You Own a System

This was a warranty visit. The homeowner wasn't charged for the trip, the inspection or the work on the two lights.

If you own permanent outdoor lighting, that last part is the one to pay attention to. The surge turned out to be nothing. The real repair was two lights nobody had reported, and they only got fixed because someone went up and checked the whole system instead of confirming the reported problem and leaving. A warranty earns its keep when it puts a crew on your roofline, not when it puts you on hold.

If you're still shopping, ask any installer how they handle a service call and whether they inspect beyond the complaint. Our post on what to look for in a permanent lighting company in Birmingham has the rest of the questions. We install and service both systems we sell, and if you're weighing them, here is how JellyFish and Bosso compare on Birmingham rooflines. The JellyFish permanent lighting page and the Bosso smart lighting page cover the products themselves.

One more thing people ask on almost every quote is install time. A typical permanent install takes us a day to two days. Big jobs, around 300 feet of track with lots of peaks and jumps between rooflines, take longer. A house like this one is on the long end of that range, which is also why it gets a careful look every time we're on it.

What to Check Before You Call

A dark system is more often a power or connection problem than broken hardware. None of these checks need a ladder:

The app. Make sure the system isn't simply off, waiting on a schedule, or showing as offline. If the router restarted after a storm, the app may just not be able to reach the controller.

Power at the controller. Confirm it's plugged in. If it runs off a GFCI outlet, see whether it tripped and press reset. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends GFCI protection on outdoor lighting circuits, and those outlets trip by design.

The breaker. Check the panel for a tripped breaker on the controller's circuit.

A power cycle. Unplug the controller, wait a minute, and plug it back in.

If it still won't come on, or only part of a run is out, call us. Don't climb up to look at the track yourself, and don't pull on it.

Who Shows Up When You Call

The crew lead on this visit is the person our company sends when a system needs real troubleshooting or a soffit is unusually difficult to work on. That's who you want on a big two-level house, and it's who showed up for a call that turned out to need a light switch and two reseated lights.

The whole idea of year round outdoor lighting is that it comes on every night without anyone thinking about it. When it doesn't, one call should be enough to get someone out to look at the whole thing.

The four-season photos of this house are in our project gallery, and if you want to see what a permanent system does the rest of the year, here's how it earns its keep outside the holidays.

We take service calls across the metro, from permanent lighting service in Mountain Brook to installs and repairs in Vestavia Hills and roofline lighting in Homewood. If your system is dark, or you want a quote on residential permanent outdoor lighting, call (205) 382-8991 or reach us through our contact page. More answers are on our Birmingham lighting FAQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if my permanent outdoor lights stop working?

Check the app, power at the controller, any GFCI outlet and the breaker, then unplug the controller for a minute and plug it back in. Those steps clear most dark-system problems without a service call. If the lights still won't come on, or only part of a run is out, call your installer instead of climbing up to look at the track.

Can a power surge reset permanent lighting?

Yes, a power surge can reset a permanent lighting controller and leave the system looking dead even when nothing is damaged. Surges come from lightning, utility grid switching, power returning after an outage, and sources inside the home. That is exactly what happened on the Mountain Brook call in this post: the controller reset and came back on its own, and the system worked once someone switched it on.

Does a permanent lighting warranty cover service calls?

A solid permanent lighting warranty covers the service visit as well as the repair, but terms vary, so ask before you buy. The visit in this post was covered, and the homeowner paid nothing for the trip, the inspection or the fix. Manufacturer parts coverage and installer workmanship coverage are separate, so get both in writing.

Why are some lights out on my permanent lighting track?

There are three common reasons lights look out on a permanent track: a light pushed up into the channel, a loose connection, or a failed light. An inspection tells you which one you have. Reseating a pushed-in light means dropping that section of track and popping the light back down, which is quick work for a crew and not a ladder project for an owner.

How long does a permanent lighting installation take on a large home?

A permanent lighting installation usually takes one to two days, and longer on large homes with a lot of track. Jobs around 300 feet with many peaks and jumps between rooflines take the most time, because every transition takes longer than a straight run.