Question 1

What is permanent outdoor lighting and how is it different from seasonal lighting?

Accepted Answer

Permanent outdoor lighting is a hard-wired, weather-proof LED system that stays in place year-round to highlight your property’s architecture, landscape, and safety zones. Seasonal lighting is temporary décor—such as Christmas roofline lights and garlands—installed for a few weeks, then professionally removed and stored. One is built to last; the other celebrates specific occasions, neither require you to lift a finger.

At Lights Over Atlanta, permanent outdoor lighting means a custom-engineered, high or low-voltage LED system hard-wired into your home or business and intended to shine every single night. Our certified designers lay out highly efficient LED uplights, pathway fixtures, and timers to deliver architectural landscape lighting Atlanta homeowners love—boosting curb appeal, safety, and property value. Because the fixtures carry a lifetime warranty, you never climb a ladder; our Atlanta outdoor lighting maintenance team provides cleaning, aiming, and replacements through simple service plans.

Seasonal lighting is different—it’s temporary décor installed for specific celebrations. Think custom Christmas light installations that go up around Thanksgiving, shine through just after New Year’s, and include everything from elegant rooflines and trees to HOA entrance garlands that make the whole community sparkle. All wiring, clips, and timers are designed for quick set-up and safe takedown, with our crew handling removal and storage once the season ends.

In short, permanent lighting is a durable architectural enhancement that lives outside year-round, while seasonal lighting is a removable accent designed purely for festive flair. Lights Over Atlanta offers turnkey design, installation, and ongoing support for both options (for both homes and businesses), so you can enjoy nightly elegance, holiday magic, or a seamless blend of the two without lifting a finger.

Question 2

Is the wiring for my outdoor lighting hidden?

Accepted Answer

Yes. For every permanent accent and landscape lighting system installed by Lights Over Atlanta, wiring is concealed beneath mulch, sod, gravel, mortar joints, gutters, or hardscape so your finished system looks like it has always been part of the property. Christmas lighting cords are managed cleanly during install, but because the display is temporary, those runs are part of the system rather than buried.

Clean installation is a primary part of how we work. When our crews install a low-voltage landscape lighting system, we trench, bury, and weather-seal every run of cable so there are no visible wires running across your beds, lawn, or hardscape. On stone, brick, or masonry surfaces, we route wiring through inconspicuous conduit or hide it in mortar joints, and we patch behind every fixture so nothing distracts from the architecture.

For Christmas lighting, the cords are part of the system because the display is temporary, but our installers carefully manage every run with proper clips, hidden tucks behind gutters and trim, and clean transitions to power so the finished display looks polished rather than tangled.

The end result for either system is lighting that feels intentional from a distance and holds up to close inspection.

If you have ever seen a property where extension cords snake across the lawn or wires hang from a façade, that is exactly what our process is built to avoid. If you have questions about how we would route wiring on a specific area of your property, give us a call at (470) 870-0606 and our designers can walk you through it during your consultation.

Question 3

Do you work with line voltage systems like 120V and 277V lighting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Lights Over Atlanta is a licensed general electrical and low-voltage contractor, so we can install and upgrade line-voltage outdoor lighting, including common 120V and 277V systems for parking lots, wall packs, and other commercial fixtures. For most homes, we install and maintain only outdoor 12V low-voltage landscape lighting.

Lights Over Atlanta does work with line voltage for indoor and outdoor commercial projects. As a licensed general electrical contractor, we handle high-voltage circuits for Atlanta businesses, including Commercial Parking Lot Lighting and Area Lighting where fixtures commonly run on 120–277V. That covers pole lights, wall packs, egress lighting, and more.

If you are replacing older HID (High-Intensity Discharge) fixtures or planning an LED retrofit, we can scope the work, coordinate scheduling, and phase upgrades so your property stays lit and open. Many clients pair this with our LED Conversion and LED outdoor lighting conversion service for better light, lower energy use, and fewer outages.

For homes, our landscape lighting Atlanta GA team typically designs outdoor 12V low-voltage systems. Low voltage gives you safer wiring, easier fixture placement, and a cleaner look around gardens, pathways, and patios while still delivering a polished, upscale glow.

Not sure which voltage fits your project? Request a free quote, and we’ll recommend the right approach.

Question 4

What is the installation process for landscape lighting?

Accepted Answer

Lights Over Atlanta uses a clear five-step process: a quick scheduling call, an on-site design consultation, a custom proposal, and professional installation. After your contract is signed and a 50% deposit is received, most installations are completed within two weeks. Final payment is due once your installation is finished.

Outdoor lighting projects work best when the process is straightforward, so we keep ours simple from the first call to the final walkthrough.

Once you reach out, our scheduling team contacts you to set up an on-site consultation. During that visit, one of our certified designers walks your property with you, listens to your priorities for curb appeal, safety, and ambience, and notes the architecture, landscaping, and dark spots that matter most. From there, we draft a custom design and proposal that fits your property and your budget.

After you review and approve the proposal, we sign a contract and collect a 50% deposit so our warehouse and production team can source materials and schedule your installation. Most installations are completed within about two weeks of the signed contract, though larger or more complex projects may take a little longer.

On installation day, our crews arrive, complete the work cleanly, and confirm every angle, beam spread, and dark corner is dialed in before they leave. Final payment is due once the installation is complete. After that, you are covered by our maintenance options and lifetime warranty on fixtures, wiring, and transformers, so your investment stays beautiful for years.

If you are ready to get started or have questions, give us a call at (470) 870-0606.

Question 5

How does professionally installed outdoor lighting compare to solar or store-bought options?

Accepted Answer

Professionally installed outdoor lighting from Lights Over Atlanta delivers brighter, more consistent, and far more durable results than solar stakes or big-box DIY kits. Our systems use commercial-grade brass and copper fixtures, professional-grade LED bulbs, hidden low-voltage wiring, and timed or photocell controls that work reliably year-round. Store-bought solar lights are a budget-friendly accent, but they typically fade, fail, or look misaligned within a season or two and cannot match the design intent or longevity of a custom system.

We get this question a lot, and the honest answer is that solar stakes, big-box landscape kits, and a professionally installed system are not really the same product, even though they all live in the front yard.

Solar lights and store-bought DIY kits are designed to be inexpensive, low-commitment, and easy to push into the ground. The tradeoff is that they are powered by small solar panels that struggle in shaded or tree-heavy yards, which describes a lot of Atlanta. Their plastic housings yellow and crack under sun and rain, the included bulbs are typically low-output and dim, and the spacing and angles are dictated by where the panel can collect sun rather than what actually looks good against your home. Most homeowners we meet have already cycled through one or two sets of solar lights before deciding to upgrade.

A professionally installed lighting system is engineered for the opposite outcome. Lights Over Atlanta uses commercial-grade brass and copper fixtures that hold up to weather and time, professional-grade LED bulbs rated for 50,000 to 100,000 hours of use, and hidden low-voltage wiring that connects everything to a central transformer. Photocell or astronomical timers turn the system on at dusk and off at dawn automatically, with no maintenance from you. Most importantly, the layout is designed, not improvised. Our certified designers apply the Gestalt Principles of Design to place uplights, downlights, path lights, and accent fixtures so they work together as one cohesive look rather than as a row of disconnected stakes.

The difference also shows up in the long run. A custom installation comes with a lifetime warranty on LED bulbs and transformers, optional maintenance plans, and a system that can be expanded or rebalanced over time. Solar lights typically need to be replaced wholesale every couple of years, and you absorb that cost and effort yourself.

For some properties, a solar accent in a single bed makes sense, and we are not going to talk anyone out of that. But for homeowners who want their property to actually look polished after dark, year after year, professional installation is the route that pays off. To see what a custom design would look like at your home, call us at (470) 870-0606 and request a free quote.

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