These days more and more people are wanting to make the switch towards what is considered professional or commercial Christmas lights. While the initial cost is often higher for commercial grade lighting, it’s an investment that will save more money in the long run.

It can be tricky to distinguish the difference between professional and retail lights if you are not as well-versed in the world of holiday lighting. To confuse things further there are many companies offering what they claim to be products, and even companies, claiming to be professional or sell commercial grade products. As with all things in life, don’t believe everything you see. To make it easier here will give you some tips and tricks to help you make the right decision.

First and foremost, any light claiming to be commercial quality must be an LED light. Nothing says cheap and outdated like those old, power-sucking incandescent bulbs your granny used back in her prime. For more information on the difference between incandescents and LED’s, click here to read our blog post.

Any product the pros are using will last a lot longer and be a lot less of a hassle. When it comes to holiday lights the build of the lights makes the biggest difference. Commercial grade lights are made as a sealed unit. This keeps dust and moisture from entering the bulb while also eliminating the possibility of a bulb coming loose. You heard that right. The days hunting down the loose or burnt out bulbs are a thing of the past. It’s no big deal if a bulb goes out with a strand of commercial grade lights. Depending on the product, most will continue to run even if one or more of the bulbs blow out. Not to mention pro grade bulbs last an average of 60,000 hours! That’s a lotta Christmas!

Secondly, size matters! Just because something says it’s a Professional LED doesn’t make it so. There are many lights that on the outside appear to be the large C9 LED bulbs used by the pros but upon further inspection are actually the cheap, non-pro grade LED lights. This type of light in most cases won’t last more than one season. The wire used in cheaper lights is often a smaller gauge wire with very little actual copper to run the electrical current. Most of these lights use a copper clad build, meaning the bulk of the wire is aluminum covered with a thin layer of copper. While commercial grade lights however use larger gauge wiring with only copper throughout.  

Third, consistency is key for the professionals. Hard to believe but many of the LED holiday lights sold at major retailers lack consistency with their color and color distribution in multi-colored light strands. If you hold the lights together, you would see a lot of variation in the same color tones. You might end up with a house covered in multiple shades of white, even though they were same brand and bought at the same store. With professional grade lighting there is a strict 3% color variation and nothing more. No human eye would see such a tight variation in color. With muti-colored LED strands, colors such as blue are harder and more expensive to make. You’ll notice the cheaper grade lights will have less color consistency throughout.

Now that the benefits of true commercial grade holiday lights are apparent, you might be wondering where to purchase “the good stuff” aka professional grade LED lights? The fact of the matter is you won’t find professional grade lights in the major retail stores. The lights placed on roof lines, gutters, etc. are all custom fitted, meaning the wire is cut to fit the house. If you aren’t trained to do so it’s an easy thing to mess up. Major retailers do not want to take on that risk. There are though plenty of online websites who offer commercial grade to homeowners looking to do it themselves. Not to mention they will always come with a warranty, something you won’t find with low grade lights!

At The Christmas Crew we frequently receive calls from home owners who were tricked into thinking they were purchasing commercial grade lights from a major retailer. Some were even sold to them by companies who claimed they were installing professional grade lights on their homes when in reality they weren’t.

It can be confusing and overwhelming to know if you’re purchasing actual professional grade lights. When it comes to purchasing the lights, you save money by going through a reputable installation company. If you’d like to enjoy a beautiful, commercial grade holiday light display, give The Christmas Crew a call today. We can recommend the perfect setup for you home with a hassle-free guarantee and warranty. We offer professional Christmas light installationsfor Fort Worth, Keller, Grapevine and the surrounding area.

And if you have purchased pro grade lights in the past, we are always more than happy to install them for you, though we always inspect the product beforehand to insure quality. And if you haven’t yet purchased any, that’s great! Since we purchase lights in such bulk the discount is always passed on to the customers!