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December 20, 2025 13 mins

Gary Sullivan chats with Chris McCoy from Haven Lighting about the importance of outdoor lighting, especially during the winter months. Chris shares how his company's smart lighting technology allows homeowners to easily switch between different colors and scenes, making it a game-changer for holiday decorating. They discuss the flexibility of their system, which can be programmed to automatically change colors and patterns throughout the year. Chris also talks about the latest trends in outdoor lighting, including roofline lighting and deck lighting, and how Haven Lighting's products can make a big impact on a home's curb appeal.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, back to work we go. As promised, we'd
have Chris McCoy on he is with Haven Lighting and
Chris welcome that home with Gary Salvn.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
How you doing, Hi, Gary, Thanks for having me. I'm
doing great.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Well. I'll tell you what this time of year, I mean,
you know, it's dark and nothing really perks up a
neighborhood like outdoor lighting. But I think most of us
always think about outdoor lighting as a summer thing. But
I'm telling you it's important in the winter time, even
from a safety standpoint. I'm sure you agree with that.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, it sure is. And this time of year it's
always you see more than you see it during the summer. Actually,
it's it's a lot of fun driving around.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
The neighborhoods, right right. Well, I'll tell you one thing.
You know, I have the lighting on my home and
you've got it. You've got unique lighting at Haven Lightning,
And you've saved me so much time because I have
a program on your lighting that makes my house green

(01:04):
and red, and I've incorporated some outdoor lighting on the
bushes and it looks outstanding. I wanted to tell you
I've had more compliments on it than ever before whenever
I've decorated, So tell me how old that was.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Oh, it's uh, it's it's great technology. And I think
I think as we, you know, as we move forward,
the we start to see more and more color and
smart and smart lighting in all the neighborhoods. And hopefully
you didn't have to even do anything. It just turned
green red automatically that like it was supposed to Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yep, it did, and we light up everything. I mean,
there's the gutters, the roof, the peaks of the house.
And then I did some regular Christmas lighting on a
couple of bushes with bulbs that kind of really even
intensified it. The first few years I didn't do that,

(02:01):
and I've added a couple just a couple of things.
Took it took me every bit of fifteen minutes to
put the additional bulbs on, but it just made everything
really pop. So I'll let you explain to people how
all that works, because I'm thinking I've seen people, you know,
there's so many people now that are hanging Christmas lights,

(02:21):
They're having their homes professionally deck decorated, and I've talked
to some of the owners. They're like it's like three
thousand dollars every year. It's like, what's going on. I
can do my whole house.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's right. The technology is very, very easy
to use, and that's one of the things that you
get with Ayman is the app is super simple. There's
a picture of your house and every light that you
have a is a little dot on the picture and
you can select one and change it whatever color you want,

(02:53):
and then save different scenes to schedule them all year round.
And the idea like at my house and hopefully your
house is you don't really you don't ever touch the app.
It just automatically happens. For Memorial Day weekend it'll be red, white,
and blue, and and and for Christmas it'll be red
and green, and then and then the rest of the year,
or however you want it can be. It can be white.

(03:14):
And I know you like our color sunset more than
more even than the white.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
So I do. I do it every summer ability in
the summertime, I don't use white. I use the sunset.
And really, if you think of a summer sunset, you
know late in the day or in the evening, late
in the evening, it is kind of an oranges yellow.
And I'll tell you what, in the summer, I don't

(03:39):
think i'd use it in December, but I think I
usually have it from you know, June through August. And
I just love that color.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, it looks, it looks great. You're right. I think
in the winter you want a little more colder, colder
white than than than that color. But the great thing
is the flexibility you have is you basically have any
or that you want any time of year, and and
hopefully it's scheduled and you don't have to touch it,
and remember to put out Christmas lights and and and

(04:09):
if you do accent a couple of bushes along during
Christmas time, I think I think you're right. I think
it does. It does add just just a ton of
of of flair for the Christmas time.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, And what's really neat is, you know, I certainly
with your with your lighting, I've accented some trees, normally
in bushes which go red and green, but just the
forward bushes where there's a you know, adding some smaller
bulbs ere it did really really accent. But you know,

(04:43):
a lot of people, I guess, how how much does
this industry grow? When I was a kid, everybody had,
you know, a light post in their front yard, except
our house did not have one, but a lot of
people light posts were big. And now we've just corporated
and your business has got to be grown because I

(05:04):
even start thinking about the backyard.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, it's we're growing like crazy. This this last quarter
was was insane. So we've I've been working, working a lot,
but it's been a lot of fun. And you know,
the latest trend is really this roofline lighting, like you mentioned,
for people paying for for putting it on Christmas lights,
and we offer three different We manufactured three different styles

(05:31):
of roofline lighting to kind of give the people there's
there's different there's different looks of it. And one of
the things one of the challenges that I think roofline
lighting has uh and I think one that we have
solved is when I see it. One of the one
of the challenges that the that I have with most
of the roofline lighting out there is it just doesn't

(05:52):
feel like Christmas. It just doesn't. The balls are a
little bit different, they're they're facing down, the colors mix
and it just doesn't give you that Christmas kid feeling
that you have when you were a kid. And when
we developed ours, we put some samples up in our
showroom and I walked in. I'm like, yeah, that's you

(06:13):
get that feeling and you just know it.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
So these So my outdoor lighting and what a lot
of people's outdoor lighting is spotlights. When you're doing roof lighting,
I see the homes and I can pick them out
immediately because they're bulbs that go across and it's got
the chords on it. You got to take them all

(06:35):
down with yours. It's not spotlights, it's actually bulbs up there.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Then right, Yes, it's a track system that you put up.
And like I said, we have a couple of different
varieties depending on what you want. One is completely linear,
so if you want it to and then you can
make that do whatever you want to eat to make
it look like balls you can make. You can make
it completely linear and do some really cool stuff. Whether
there's some flag we have some flag effects that on

(07:02):
a moral day we can look ridiculously cool, but but
you can you can do whatever you want. Then all
the way from Winnear and then we have we have
a Christmas style like look to one version and then
we have a more of a down like version that
are that are much more spread out, that look like
you know, some sofit down lights, but they're programmable so

(07:24):
you can make them do all kinds of patterns and
red and green for Christmas and things like that. So
you know, we've kind of attacked all three varieties because
different people like different different styles.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Mm hm, So I'm sure somebody same boy, if we're
lighting up that much of the outside of the home,
what's this costing? But with LED, probably not that much.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Huh, it's not too bad. I mean, if you're definitely
if you're paying for somebody to put up Christmas lights,
this will definitely be very very attractive to you, you know.
And and I started the business just because I was out.
I literally it was outside putting up Christmas lights, and
I was like, I don't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
So is a lot of your business is it just
is it individual homes or is it commercial or I'm
sure it's both, but because I see a lot of commercial.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Properties, it's definitely a mix of both. So we do
we're about thirty percent commercial seventy percent residential, and we
do some really cool commercial projects, you know, with our
technology you can interface it with sports teams. So the
University of Kentucky has our lights all around their football
stadium so when they score, they can make the lights

(08:37):
dance automatically and do all kinds of stuff. It's it's
it's super cool technology, the way the way that all
that works.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, and when you talk about the cost, you're right.
I mean, that's what prompted my call is I look
at these beautiful homes that are lit up, and then
I start talking about the costs. And somebody coming up
and putting all this stuff up every year taking it down.
I'm thinking, like, I don't even I don't even flip
a switch. It just happens. Granted, I put a couple

(09:06):
of lights on some bushes just to accent and build
on it. I was feeling guilty. It was so easy.
And uh, I'm thinking, like, I got to get Chris
On here, because I don't know how many people know
about the flexibility of of of color, you know, I mean,

(09:26):
it's more than just putting a light fixture in the ground.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
So yeah, I think one of the I think one
of the misperceptions is is that just because you have
color doesn't mean that you it doesn't mean that you
can't have white most of the year and make white
look really really nice and people wouldn't you drive it by,
People wouldn't really know that they were colored lights. So
I think one of the misperceptions is you either have
one or the other. And with our with our technology,

(09:53):
that's that's not true. You can have it white most
of the year and then and then celebrate and make
your house look super cool for the kids and grand kids.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, now I guess you're gonna get big
ornaments with a light in right, big bubbles, big big
what's on the planning board?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Well, I'll tell you this roofline, this roofline technology has
really really taken off.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And uh, you got pictures of that on the website
we do.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, if you got to shophaven dot com, there are
there are definitely all kinds of pictures of the roofline stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Okay, okay, so that's the hot one right now. And
you lighting around decks in the summertime, is that? I
guess that's pretty big. I don't have a deck on
my house, but that's got to be pretty big too,
because I'm seeing party lights on screen porches and everything else.
And your your your jobs can do a lot of
that from a safety standpoint and also cosmetics.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Correct, Yes, that's correct. A lot of times, a lot
of times our customers will use our product X in
their backyard and you know, it's fun. The the uh.
The most common thing I hear when I ask why
did why did you do what you did in the
backyard is uh? And the answer is there to bring
their kids back home. Their kids are their kids are

(11:14):
either moved out or of the of independent age, and
they want them to come back and hang out. And
that's that's that gives me chills. I love it.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, don't we all? Well, Chris, how did people get
started with you? I mean they can visit your website
and it's what again.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, shophaven dot com.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Okay at H O P H A V E N
all right, and then they kind of get an idea
of what they want and do you come and visit
the home and because there's some there's some skill and
kind of getting the light shadows. I'm assuming not everybody
can just stick lights in the ground make it look beautiful.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah we do. Uh. So we are the actual manufacturers
of the product. We write all the software we we
handle all of the the app and the servers, and
the and the lighting technology and the lights themselves. U Locally,
We're located in Cincinnati. Locally in Cincinnati we do the installs.
We'll do them on some major commercial projects around the country,

(12:15):
like we did a couple of resorts at Disney things
like that, But around the country, we have trained installers
all over the country that are independent companies that that
that we'll do exactly what we do in Cincinnati, and
and even we have some in Cincinnati that that also
do what we do.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Well, I'm gonna take a picture of my lovely looking
how some I'll send it.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
To you great looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Well, Chris, thanks for joining us. It really is. It's
it's one of the most versatile things I've added to
my home. It really is. Uh and not only the
light changing, but just you know, being able to you know,
change the light for summer to winter and the layout
and you know, I don't know, the lights and the

(12:58):
gutters that shoot up on the roof of it's beautiful.
And just wanted to, you know, tell everybody about it
because I still think there's a lot of people that
that don't understand what you can do. And every now
and then, like I said, I see people hanging lights
and I see people putting their own lights in and
I'm going it's a mistake. You can make it look good.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah. And ladders are super dangerous, honestly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Oh I know.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
If you don't it yourself, just be just be extremely careful.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
On the ladder.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
It's it's very dangerous, all.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Right, Haven Lighting. Chris McCoy, thank you very much for
joining us. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
All right, take care

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