I guessed the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism would be cool, but not this cool

We love to see it — that house on the commute home from work that always has festive decorations lit up to celebrate each holiday. Even on horrible days, seeing that cheery house is a nice feeling. There’s just one glaring issue with having festive lights on your home — it’s a massive pain to actually get them up on the house.

Without fail, it always feels like a sketchy situation to get on the ladder and work with arms overhead and a staple gun. Just ask Clark Griswold. That same inconvenience hits if a bulb burns out and needs a replacement. Luckily, Govee is giving us the ability to keep lights on year-round with bulbs that’ll never need replacing.

A never-ending party

For years now, Govee has made outdoor lights that are designed to be permanent. Just one trip up the ladder and/or onto the roof and the lights can stay up year-round.

But in the fall of 2025, Govee launched the new Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism. Unlike previous Govee models, the Prism version has triple-color lighting heads on each light module. In less fancy terms, each individual light consists of three lights that can all display their own individual color. The result looks like the coolest lighting party that your neighbors will envy.

Home is where the celebrations happen, so putting up permanent lights is a top-tier life hack. Holidays, birthday parties, graduation, retirement, backyard barbecues, and every party in between will have a new element of celebratory vibes. Plus, Govee’s app makes choosing your lighting situation incredibly enjoyable. As an added bonus, the lights are awesome for illuminating the front door and your home’s perimeter both for better visibility when walking around and better home security.

A fancy upgrade from the original Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights

As a surprise to no one, Govee does lighting incredibly well and the Prism version of the brand’s permanent outdoor lights are spectacular, in my opinion. The triple-light module makes for an amazing display. I first heard about these lights when I was covering exciting launches at IFA 2025 and I knew they’d be cool, but once I got them up, I was enamored. They’re more than just cool. The triple color effect is really awesome.

Govee went all out with this design, from the lights themselves to the durable build. For starters, they’re safe to use in a massive temperature range from -22 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit which again, plays into the permanent aspect of these lights. They’re also waterproof, carrying an IP68 rating. The power adapter and control box come with an IP67 rating. 

If you like more technical specs, each light has a rating of 60 lumens with a color temperature range between 2,700K and 6,500K. You’ve probably heard of the RGB term (red, green, blue) but these Govee lights operate with RGBWWIC which adds in warm white, and independent control. That means you get 16 million color options to choose from, all with tunable gradients and brightness levels. If that feels intimidating, you can choose from over 100 preset Govee modes.

A playful app

Immediately, I was in love with the look of the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism. I’m a huge sucker for great ambient lighting as well as lighting that helps set the mood and these lights do both in a majorly successful way.

But knowing I was testing these for others, I went deep into the Govee app to see just what these spendy lights were capable of. What happened next was me sitting outside for hours playing with the app and then looking at the lights to say, “Oh this one is the coolest!” over and over again.

The Govee app you’ll use to control the lights offers endless options of lighting vibes for every holiday, celebration, event, mood, and more. When I was testing, Govee even had options to celebrate the new release of Zootopia 2, and then I played around with dozens of pre-set options that covered major sports teams from the NFL, NHL, MLB, and more. That’s an awesome feature to immediately switch your lights to your team’s colors on game days. 

There’s also nature scenes, festivals, and the option to have the lights bop along with your music. And then I found Govee’s “Effects Lab.” Here, I tested out light colors and displays that depict settings from all around the world like Santorini, the Sydney Opera House, and the Tokyo Tower. You can display common colors of the lagoon triggerfish or plants or even pulling colors from famous paintings. 

The Govee app is also one of the few instances I can support using AI. The Govee AI Lighting Bot 2.0 was a joy to use, and it crafted me red and white lighting displays after my prompt. But you can also give the Bot 2.0 a vibe you’re going for and it’ll do its best to convey that mood in lighting form. 

What I don’t love

Not everything is 100% perfect with the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism and after having them up for a few weeks, I have two small gripes.

First, the light modules are super spread out. A 100-foot set includes 36 lighting heads. That means there’s about 2.7 feet between each light. I’m gonna assume Govee did this on purpose. Because each light is actually three-in-one and the outer two are angled in such a way to project over a wide area, each light module projects in a fairly wide area. Because of this, I don’t think many people will be upset about the spacing but I wish they were a smidge closer together.

The only other negative I see about the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism strands is that they need to be attached under an overhang. You won’t be able to get the right effect from these lights if you string them up on a backyard fence or wind them around a pole, for example. The shining performance of these Prism lights with a triple light effect really requires them to project downward onto a wall.

What’s the lifespan of permanent outdoor lights?

Govee notes the Prism permanent outdoor lights can last for up to 50,000 hours. That equals 2,083 days or about 5.5 years if you never turn the lights off, ever. Assuming you would turn the lights off during daylight hours, we’ll adjust that to keeping them on for 10 hours per day. That equals a lifespan of 5,000 days of use or about 13.7 years. 

So these Govee lights are not permanent in the sense that they'll last a lifetime but rather, they’re permanent in that you won’t have to take them down after each holiday. Thanks to their durability, weather-resistance, and LED light technology, these lights should last an incredibly long time. Certainly long enough to stay up on your roof until you move or you decide to upgrade to newer lights with fancier tech sometime within the next 13 years.

Are the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism worth the price?

The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism are top-of-the-line and use some of the most advanced technology we have when it comes to lighting. Because of this and their durable build, these lights don’t come cheap. A 100-foot set has 36 lighting heads and comes with a list price of $539.99. Up that to a 150-foot set with 54 lights and the price jumps to $699.99. A 200-foot set with 72 lightning heads comes with a wincing price tag of $859.99.

That’s a lot of money for exterior lights. But put into real-life context, I think it’s well worth the price for many people. It saves you the hassle, questionable safety, and time of getting up on the ladder and/or on the roof each year to hang the Christmas lights and then take them down in sketchy wet weather come January. The price becomes even more warranted if you typically hire someone to hang Christmas lights for you each year, which can often come with an astronomical price. The permanence of the Govee lights is likely well worth it for plenty of homes.

If you’re not thrilled about paying the premium for the Prism version, Govee makes several other outdoor permanent lights that come in at a more affordable price like the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro and the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights 2. Both of those options are a downgrade in terms of display options, but they serve the same purpose of getting lights on your house that won’t need to come down for a very, very long time. Plus, they’re awesome, and that counts for quite a bit.