How to Become a Certified Permanent Lighting Installer

Permanent outdoor lighting is a natural add-on for a contractor who already works on the outside of houses. You already own the ladders, you already know the homeowners, and the work fits around your main trade. This guide covers what it takes to add it as a service and how the BNLT side works.

What does it take to add permanent lighting as a service?

Less new equipment than you might expect, and more attention to detail. Most of the list below is already in place at an established exterior contractor.

• Safe ladder and roof edge work. Roofline and soffit jobs happen at the eave. Crews who work at height every day have a head start.
• Comfort with low voltage wiring. You need to plan runs, route wire neatly and understand why a long run can come up short. Our guide to voltage drop for installers covers a part that trips up beginners.
• A clean finish. The homeowner looks at this work every day in full sun. Straight lines, hidden wire and color matched hardware are what get you referrals.
• Basic app setup. Each job ends with commissioning the system and handing the homeowner a phone that controls it. Plan time to teach them.
• Licensing and insurance that cover the work. Rules for low voltage lighting differ by state and by city. Check with your own licensing board and your insurance agent before you sell the first job. Do not assume your current license covers it.
• A way to sell at night. This product is easiest to sell after dark on the customer’s own house. Learn how in running a night demo.

Some trades have a head start. Roofers are already at the roof edge and already talking to the homeowner about the outside of the house. There is a separate guide on adding permanent lighting to a roofing company. Screen enclosure builders already work the aluminum that pool enclosure lighting mounts to, and there is a guide on adding lighting to a screen enclosure company as well. Note that BNLT markets pool enclosure and lanai lighting in Florida, Alabama and the Southeast. The other systems are sold nationwide.

What is the Masters of Lighting Academy?

The Masters of Lighting Academy is the umbrella for the BNLT contractor course, the calculators and tools and Light Genie. It is more than a single course. The course is one part of it.

Where do you find the training details?

Contractors train through the Masters of Lighting Academy. The point of training is to know the product, the planning and the installation before you put a system on a customer’s house.

The details should come from the source. Go to the Academy page for current training details. Check there instead of relying on what another contractor tells you. If you want to talk to a person first, call 407-469-7093 or write to info@brighternights.com.

How do you buy product?

Through a stocking distributor. BNLT sells only through distribution, nationwide. Distributors stock the product. You order through a stocking distributor and product ships in 3 to 5 days. ABC Supply Outdoor Solutions is one distributor that carries the line.

A few points are worth being clear on, because they are different from how some lighting brands work.

• There is no buy-in. You do not pay for the right to sell or install the product.
• You can buy anything in the line through BNLT’s distributors.
• BNLT does not sell to contractors directly. Your order runs through the distributor.
• You do not need to be in Florida. Florida is where the product was proven. The channel is national.

To get started, fill out the form on the installer page. BNLT connects you with a stocking distributor from there.

How are homeowners matched with certified installers?

BNLT does not install lighting. So when a homeowner comes to the website and wants a system, that job has to go to a contractor. The homeowner fills out one form. BNLT matches them with a certified installer and an estimate. The installer handles the estimate, the sale and the installation under the installer’s own company name.

Do your own selling first. Offer lighting to every customer you already serve, light a job at dusk for the neighbors to see, and take good pictures of finished work. Our guide to photographing lighting jobs shows how to get those pictures.

What should the first three months look like?

This is general advice from the trade and no part of it is a BNLT requirement. See the current training details on the Academy page before you sell anything. Get set up with your distributor and learn what they keep on the shelf. Install a system on your own house or your shop first, so your mistakes happen where no customer sees them. Take pictures of it at dusk. Then offer lighting to the customers you already have before you spend a dollar on advertising. Your next jobs can come from people who saw the first one lit up at night.

Keep the first jobs simple. A straight front roofline teaches you layout, wire routing and app setup without the complications of a large property. Add the harder work as your team gets faster.