Video Comparison
TruLight vs Haven Lights: The Full Breakdown
Haven Lights is primarily a landscape lighting company that added a permanent roof lighting line. We went deep on their hardware, pricing, warranty, and app to see if the premium price holds up. Here's what we found.
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Here's the Bottom Line
Haven Lights started as a landscape lighting company in 2016. Their permanent roof lighting is a secondary product, and after digging into the hardware, warranty, pricing, and app, it shows. The installed price is nearly double the industry standard. The warranty covers one-third of what TruLight backs. And the app has no color wheel, no animations, and no way to customize beyond 28 preset colors.
Half the voltage, one-third the lifespan
TruLight runs at 48V. Haven's EVO runs at 24V. TruLight's UCS7604 chip is rated for 100,000 hours and backed by a 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's raw materials cost $24–$27 per foot before a single wire is run. Installed Haven systems land at $40–$50 per foot in most markets. The rest of the industry installs at $25–$30 per foot. The chip, voltage, warranty, and app don't explain the gap.
28 fixed colors. No animations. No wheel.
Haven's app locks you into 28 preset colors with no color wheel and no RGB code input. There are zero animated patterns. TruLight ships with 144+ animated patterns, a full color wheel, RGB code entry, and a built-in music manager.
Full Side-by-Side Specs
| Feature | TruLight | Haven Lights |
|---|---|---|
| LED Chip | UCS7604 (RGBW) | Unknown (not UCS7604) |
| System Voltage | 48V | 24V |
| LED Lifespan | 100,000 hours | 30,000 hours (best case) |
| Warranty | Lifetime | 5 yrs / 30,000 hrs (select LEDs); 1-yr (most) |
| Typical Installed Price | $25–$30/linear foot | $40–$50/linear foot |
| Hardware Style | Aluminum track, individual nodes | Light bar with plexi diffuser (EVO) |
| App Color Options | Full color wheel + any RGB code | 28 fixed colors only |
| Animated Patterns | 144+ | 0 (no animations) |
| Landscape Light Control | App + same controller | Physical smart key for some series |
| Music Sync | Built-in music manager | Not available |
| Primary Product Focus | Permanent roof lighting | Landscape lighting |
*LED Chip: The host confirmed Haven does not use the UCS7604 chip but could not identify which chip they use. TruLight and OEO are the only two companies confirmed to use the UCS7604.
*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 run $24–$27 per foot before any labor. The industry standard for a complete, professional permanent lighting installation is $25–$30 per foot.
*Hardware Style: Haven's EVO light uses 24V nodes inside a C-channel track covered by a white plastic diffuser, creating a continuous fluorescent bar effect. 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 Actually Look Like on a Home?
Haven's flagship permanent light is called the EVO. It's built completely differently from anything else in the market. The 24V LED nodes snap into a C-shaped channel track. Then a white plastic diffuser snaps over the top. The result is a continuous light bar that looks similar to a fluorescent strip.
That style works well on commercial buildings and for attention-getting holiday displays. The host notes it is not well-suited for lighting backyards, pools, or gazebos because the bar look doesn't project light the same way individual nodes do. It's essentially a different product category from traditional permanent roofline 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.
See the EVO hardware walkthrough at 5:19 in the videoWhy Does Haven Cost $40 to $50 a Foot When Everyone Else Charges $25 to $30?
This is the question the host spent five-plus hours trying to answer. He came up empty.
Haven's raw materials alone cost $24 to $27 per foot. That's before anyone shows up to install them. The industry standard for a complete, professional installation, including labor, runs $25 to $30 per foot. Haven's materials price nearly matches what TruLight dealers charge for the fully installed job.
Installed Haven systems run $40 to $50 per linear foot. The host checked whether the chip, the voltage, the warranty, or the app could explain the gap. None of them do. The chip is a step down from TruLight's. The voltage is half. The warranty covers a fraction of what TruLight backs. And the app rated lower than any other company he reviewed.
He is careful to point out this is the company's pricing structure, not a dealer problem. Every other major company in the space has figured out how to keep dealers profitable while staying in the $25 to $30 per foot range. Haven has not.
See the pricing breakdown at 7:26 in the videoDoes 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, backed by a lifetime warranty. Running non-stop around the clock, Haven's 30,000-hour limit hits in about 3.4 years. TruLight's 100,000-hour chip takes roughly 11.4 years to reach under the same non-stop scenario. You're not paying double for the warranty.
The host's summary: it's not the chip, not the voltage, not the warranty, and not the app. There is no visible technical reason for Haven to cost what it costs compared to the rest of the market.
See the warranty breakdown at 9:21 in the videoWhat Chip Does Haven Use, and How Does the Voltage Stack Up?
The host confirmed Haven does not use the WS2811 chip (a 3-in-1 RGB chip rated for 50,000 hours that most competitors use) and does not use the UCS7604 (the 4-in-1 RGBW chip TruLight uses, rated for 100,000 hours). Haven's chip is unidentified after research. That matters because the chip determines lifespan, color quality, and whether you get a dedicated warm white channel.
The UCS7604 has six LED elements per node: three RGB elements and three dedicated warm white elements. All six together produce a true, pure white that looks clean. RGB-only systems mix red, green, and blue to approximate white. It works, but it is not the same result.
On voltage: Haven runs at 24V. TruLight runs at 48V. Higher voltage means the power signal travels farther on a single run without needing to be refreshed. On a typical home, TruLight needs one power injection point roughly every 400 lights. Lower-voltage systems need injection points far more often, which adds more wiring runs and more splices through the soffit over the life of the install.
What Is Haven's App Actually Like to Use?
After spending five-plus hours going through Haven's training videos and app walkthrough content, the host called Haven's app the worst he had reviewed out of every permanent lighting company. He wasn't being casual about it.
The app gives you 28 colors total: roughly 20 colors plus 8 versions of white. There is no color wheel. You cannot type in an RGB code. You are locked into those 28 presets, full stop. There are also zero animated patterns. App store ratings at time of filming: about 3.4 on Google Play and 3.2 on Apple.
Setting up landscape light zones requires physically touching each light with a “smart key,” putting it into pairing mode, then assigning it to a zone from the app. The more training videos the host watched, the more confused he got. He noted that even the people filming the tutorials got confused mid-explanation.
One genuine positive: Game Day integration. You set your favorite sports team and the lights flash when they score. The host says TruLight's developers looked at it and said it would be easy to add. But one fun integration doesn't save an app with no animations and no color customization at a $40 to $50 per foot price point.
TruLight App
- 144+ animated patterns
- Full color wheel
- Custom RGB code entry
- Animated house preview
- True software zoning
- Motion sensor zones
- Built-in music manager
Haven App
- Game Day integration
- Animated patterns
- Color wheel
- Custom RGB code entry
- App-based zoning (no key required)
- Music sync
- Motion sensor support
Can Haven Control Landscape and Roof Lights from One App?
Haven is first and foremost a landscape lighting company. They have a large catalog of walkway lights, pool lights, step lights, and gazebo lights. The permanent roof lighting came later as an add-on product line.
Some of Haven's landscape light series cannot be controlled through the app at all. You hold a physical “Haven key” chip near the light to cycle through colors: red, blue, green, purple. Remove the key and the color locks in. That's how you change it. Their newer app-connected series still requires a smart key pairing step for each individual light before you can assign it to a zone.
TruLight's landscape lights will run through the same app and the same controller box as the roof lighting. Each light gets its own number, so you can group and zone them right from the app alongside your home lighting. No physical key, no pairing mode, no extra steps.
See the landscape light comparison at 14:23 in the videoStraight From the Video
“Haven's app is the worst app out of every company I have ever seen.”
“You get what you pay for, but there's also things where you're getting ripped off.”
“If you're going to pay 50 bucks a foot, you better have a killer app. And they don't.”
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