Gemstone Lights – Why Exterior LED Lighting is Worth it for Alberta Homes

Outdoor lighting isn’t just for the holidays anymore!

Gemstone Lights are a permanent exterior LED lighting system that installs once and stays in place year-round. The lights sit in a colour-matched aluminum track along your soffit and roofline, invisible during the day, controllable from an app on your phone. No ladders, no seasonal reinstallation, no storage bin full of half-working string lights.

Check out this beautiful Gemstone Pinterest gallery of what’s possible for your home.

Central Alberta Lighting, part of the Rave Design Showroom family, is an authorized Gemstone Lights dealer in Red Deer. 

We’ve been watching this category grow across Central Alberta and can give you an honest picture on what the system does, what Alberta conditions it has to handle, and whether the investment makes sense for your home. 

Call us at 403-346-7088 or visit raveshowroom.ca/gemstone-lights/ for more information.

What Gemstone Lights Actually Are (and What Makes Them Different)

Gemstone Lights uses a proprietary RGBWW LED system installed in a colour-matched aluminum track that runs along your soffit and fascia. RGBWW means the lights produce the full red-green-blue colour spectrum plus both warm white and cool white, giving you 16 million colour combinations and a white light range from 2800K (warm candlelight) to 7000K (cool daylight).

Each bulb consumes a maximum of 1 watt of electricity. Across a typical roofline, the system uses far less power than you might expect.

At 60 to 100 lumens per foot, the output is architectural, not floodlight-level, which is the right output for soffit-mounted accent and holiday lighting.

The system is controlled through the Gemstone app on iOS or Android. 

You schedule colours and patterns, set timers, adjust brightness, and switch between modes for different occasions, all from your phone. There are no monthly subscription fees. Once it’s installed, the ongoing cost is only electricity.

Can Gemstone Lights Handle Red Deer’s Climate?

This is the right question to ask first, and the direct answer is yes. 

Gemstone Lights are Canadian-engineered and tested specifically for Alberta’s conditions. The lights carry an IP67 rating, which means fully dust-tight and waterproof to a depth of one metre for 30 minutes. In practical terms for Red Deer, that means heavy snowfall, freezing rain, sleet, and ice accumulation will not compromise the lights or the electronics inside them.

Red Deer’s temperature range, from above 30 degrees Celsius in summer to below -40 in winter, is a genuine test for any outdoor product. 

The aluminum track is designed to expand and contract with temperature changes without losing its seal or its alignment. The IP67 rating applies across that full operating range. 

The lights themselves are rated for a 50,000-hour lifespan, which at average use equates to roughly 20 years.

Alberta’s freeze-thaw cycles are a known source of failure for outdoor electrical products with inferior seals. Gemstone’s UV protection and surge protection address two of the other common failure modes in harsh outdoor environments. 

In our experience at Central Alberta Lighting, these are the specs that matter most when recommending a permanent outdoor lighting product in this climate.

Pro Tip from the Central Alberta Lighting team: One question we get often is whether the lights look visible on the house during the day when they’re off. The answer is that the aluminum track is colour-matched to your soffit and fascia colour at installation, so the system is designed to be as discreet as possible. On most homes, it reads as a clean architectural detail rather than obvious hardware. Come into the showroom and we can show you photos of local installations.

Year-Round Use: More Than Just Christmas Lights

The shift that makes Gemstone worthwhile for most buyers is the year-round perspective. 

If you’re evaluating permanent exterior lights only as a Christmas light replacement, the math is close. If you’re thinking about them as permanent architectural lighting with the ability to program seasonal and event-based colour changes, the value proposition opens up considerably.

Many Red Deer homeowners who have Gemstone installed use warm white as their default setting from September through March, a soft architectural glow along the roofline that adds curb appeal and visibility in the dark winter months when the sun sets by 4:30 PM. 

They switch to red and white for Christmas, orange and purple for Halloween, red and white for Canada Day, and back to white for everyday use in the spring and summer.

For homeowners who host regularly or care about how their home looks from the street through the long Alberta winter, the system functions as a permanent exterior lighting feature, not a seasonal one.

“The homeowners who get the most out of Gemstone are the ones who stop thinking of it as a Christmas light and start thinking of it as a permanent exterior light feature. The holiday programming is fun, but the everyday architectural value through our dark Alberta winters is what most people end up appreciating most.” — Central Alberta Lighting team, Rave Design Showroom

Installation and Warranty: What You’re Actually Buying

Gemstone Lights require professional installation by an authorized dealer. 

This is not a product you purchase at a hardware store and mount yourself. The installation involves running the track along your soffit and fascia, wiring the system to a controller, and programming the app connection. Central Alberta Lighting handles the full installation process as an authorized dealer.

The warranty is one of the system’s strongest selling points for skeptical buyers. 

Gemstone backs the lights with a lifetime warranty and the parts with a 10-year warranty. In a market full of outdoor LED products with 1 to 3 year warranties, a lifetime warranty on the lights themselves is a meaningful commitment from the manufacturer. It addresses the primary concern most buyers have: what happens when something fails in year five.

For new home builders, Gemstone can be integrated during construction, which simplifies the installation and allows the track to be concealed more cleanly in the roofline profile. 

For existing homes, retrofit installation is standard and the team at Central Alberta Lighting has done it across a range of Red Deer-area home styles from newer southwest neighbourhoods to established north Red Deer homes.

“The warranty question comes up in almost every Gemstone conversation. When we tell buyers the lights carry a lifetime warranty and the parts carry 10 years, the hesitation about durability usually resolves. That warranty exists because Gemstone builds a product they can stand behind, and we wouldn’t carry it if we didn’t believe in it.” — Central Alberta Lighting team, Rave Design Showroom

Frequently Asked Questions

Want to See a Gemstone Demonstration Before You Decide?

Come into the Rave Design Showroom and our team at Central Alberta Lighting can walk you through the Gemstone Lights system, show you examples of local installations, and answer questions specific to your home’s roofline and exterior.

We can also provide a quote once we understand your home’s dimensions and configuration.

Visit our Gemstone Lighting product page for more information and to book a consultation.

Central Alberta Lighting | #9 – 7619 50 Ave, Red Deer, AB | 403-346-7088 | Gemstone Outdoor Lighting

You can also explore our full indoor and outdoor lighting selection here.