TruLight vs Haven Lights: Does Haven's Price Hold Up?

TruLight vs Haven Lights: the bottom line

Haven's roof lighting is a side line for a company built on landscape lights. Installed Haven systems cost $40 to $50 per foot, and the 24V hardware and the warranty behind it do not account for that price. Haven's best LED warranty stops at 30,000 hours, where TruLight carries a limited lifetime warranty. The app is limited to 28 preset colors, with no color wheel and no animated patterns.

Half the voltage, one-third the lifespan

TruLight is a 48V system. Haven's EVO is 24V. TruLight's UCS7604 chip is rated for 100,000 hours and backed by a limited lifetime warranty. Haven's best-case LED rating is 30,000 hours or 5 years, whichever comes first, and that only applies to select premium models.

Paying $40-50 a foot for what?

Haven sells its raw materials for $24 to $27 per foot, before any labor. Installed, Haven systems come to $40 to $50 per foot, depending on the market. Nothing on Haven's spec sheet accounts for that price.

28 fixed colors and no animated patterns

Haven's app limits you to 28 preset colors. You cannot pick from a color wheel or enter an RGB code, and there are no animated patterns. The TruLight app has 144 motion effects, a full color wheel, RGB code entry and a built-in music manager.

TruLight vs Haven Lights specs

*LED Chip: Bowdrie confirmed Haven does not use the UCS7604 chip, but he could not identify which chip it does use.

*LED Lifespan: Haven's 30,000-hour figure applies only to select premium models and is capped at 5 years or 30,000 hours, whichever comes first. Most Haven products carry a 1-year limited warranty on manufacturing, materials, and workmanship.

*Typical Installed Price: Haven's raw materials alone cost $24 to $27 per foot before any labor. TruLight dealers set their own prices and quote each home individually.

*Hardware Style: Haven's EVO light uses 24V nodes inside a C-channel track covered by a white plastic diffuser, so it looks like one continuous fluorescent bar. TruLight nodes snap into aluminum track mounted below the fascia or soffit.

*Landscape Light Control: Some Haven landscape light series require a physical key chip held near the light to cycle and lock in a color. Their newer app-connected series requires a smart key pairing step for each light to assign it to a zone.

*Primary Product Focus: Haven was founded in 2016 primarily as a landscape lighting company. Their X-series permanent roof lighting was added later as a secondary product line.

What does the Haven EVO look like on a home?

Haven's flagship permanent light is the EVO. Its 24V LED nodes snap into a C-shaped channel track, and a white plastic diffuser snaps over the top. The result is a continuous light bar that looks a lot like a fluorescent strip. Bowdrie says it looks different from anything else on the market.

He thinks that look suits commercial buildings and holiday displays meant to grab attention. He says it will not light up a backyard, a pool or a gazebo the way individual nodes can. To him, a light bar is a different category from roofline node lighting.

TruLight uses individual nodes inside an aluminum track mounted below the fascia or soffit. From the ground you see a clean line of individual points of light. When the lights are off, the track blends with the trim. When they're on, each node lights up separately, which gives far more flexibility for backyards and accent lighting.

Why does Haven cost $40 to $50 a foot?

Haven sells its raw materials for $24 to $27 per foot. That is the do-it-yourself price, before anyone is paid to install them. Installed Haven systems come to $40 to $50 per linear foot, depending on the market.

Bowdrie checked whether the chip, the voltage, the warranty or the app could explain that price, and none of them do. Haven does not use the UCS7604 chip TruLight uses. The EVO is 24V to TruLight's 48V. Haven's best LED warranty is 30,000 hours, and he called its app the worst he has seen from any permanent lighting company.

He also says the price comes from Haven itself, not from the dealers who install it.

TruLight does not set a national installed price. Each dealer quotes the home in front of them, so compare written quotes for the same roofline.

Does Haven's warranty justify the premium?

Most Haven products carry a 1-year limited warranty covering manufacturing, materials, and workmanship. Their best-case LED warranty, which applies to select premium models, is 5 years or 30,000 hours, whichever comes first.

TruLight's UCS7604 chip is rated for 100,000 hours, and TruLight carries a limited lifetime warranty. Lit non-stop around the clock, Haven's 30,000-hour limit arrives in about 3.4 years.

What chip does Haven use, and how does the voltage stack up?

Bowdrie could not find which chip Haven uses. He does not think it is the WS2811, a 3-in-1 RGB chip rated for 50,000 hours, and he knows it is not the UCS7604, the 4-in-1 RGBW chip TruLight uses, rated for 100,000 hours. The chip matters because it sets the lifespan rating and decides whether the light has a dedicated warm white channel.

The UCS7604 has six LED elements per node: three RGB elements and three dedicated warm white elements. With all six on, the light makes a pure white. RGB-only systems mix red, green and blue to get close to white, and it is not the same result.

Haven's EVO is a 24V system and TruLight is 48V. At 48V, power carries farther down a run before it needs another injection point. On a typical home, TruLight needs one power injection point roughly every 400 lights. Lower-voltage systems need them far more often, which means more wiring and more splices through the soffit.

What is Haven's app like to use?

Bowdrie spent four or five hours going through Haven's training videos and app walkthroughs, and he called it the worst app he has seen from any permanent lighting company. He gave the user experience a 1 or a 2 and the functionality maybe a 3.

The app gives you 28 colors, about 20 colors plus 8 versions of white. There is no color wheel and no way to type in an RGB code, so those 28 presets are all you get. There are no animated patterns either. When the video was filmed, the app was rated about 3.4 on Google Play and 3.2 on Apple, and Bowdrie says most of the reviews he read mention crashes or connection problems.

To zone landscape lights, you touch each light with a smart key to put it in pairing mode, then assign it to a zone in the app. Bowdrie says the more of Haven's training videos he watched, the more confused he got, and in one tutorial the presenters get confused partway through their own explanation.

Haven's Game Day feature is a plus. You set your favorite sports team, and the lights flash when the team scores. Bowdrie says TruLight's developers looked at it and think they can add it without much trouble. One integration does not make up for 28 colors and no animations at $40 to $50 a foot.

The TruLight app has thousands of patterns, 144 motion effects, a full color wheel, custom RGB code entry, an animated house preview, software zoning, motion sensor zones and a built-in music manager.

Can Haven control landscape and roof lights from one app?

Haven sells a large catalog of walkway, pool, step and gazebo lights. Its roof lighting came later, as an add-on line.

Bowdrie found at least one Haven landscape series that the app cannot control. You hold a Haven key chip against the light while it cycles through red, blue, green and purple, and when you take the key away, the light keeps that color. Haven's newer app-connected series still needs the smart key pairing step for each light before you can assign it to a zone.

TruLight's landscape lights work through the same app and the same controller box as the roof lighting. Each light shows up in the app as a number. Bowdrie's example is a walkway on lights 17 to 20: you select those four and zone them together, without touching a light or pairing anything.