Delivery drivers kept driving past my house. It sits back from the road behind shrubs, and the old numbers were small and unlit. I wanted numbers that were bigger, visible at night, and weatherproof, and I wanted to feed them from the porch light circuit so I would not have to run any new wire.
This is how I did it in an afternoon, plus a couple of things I would do differently today. If you just want the general instructions, the install guide covers every mounting and wiring option.
What I used
Parts: two stainless backlit digits, one wire-in 12V driver, a scrap of plywood, screws, Rust-Oleum hammered metallic spray paint, wire nuts, hot glue.
Tools: drill, 5/32 and 3/8 bits, saw, wire strippers, volt meter.
Step 1: Power
Kill the breaker first. Then I pulled the porch light and checked the voltage at the box with a meter so I knew what the driver would see. The driver takes anything from 100 to 265 volts AC, so a normal US circuit is fine.
My original plan was to tap the circuit and keep the porch light. I dropped that because a bright light right above the numbers washes out the glow, which I had seen on plenty of houses. It turned out the numbers are bright enough on their own. Once the fixture was off I measured the hole in the siding, because the backboard had to cover it.
Step 2: The backboard
I had a piece of plywood the right width, so I only had to cut it to length. I set the digits on it, spaced them the way I wanted, and traced them. Each digit comes with two threaded dowels and two screws with rubber stoppers under the heads. I marked the dowel positions, drilled 5/32 pilot holes (the dowels seat in those perfectly), then marked where each digit's wires come out and drilled those through with the 3/8 bit.
The metallic paint hid most of the plywood grain and gave the board a finish I actually liked. Two coats, and I let it sit overnight.
Step 3: Wiring
The digits run on 12 volts DC, so the driver sits between the house wiring and the numbers. It is 12V DC, 1 amp, which runs 12 four-inch, 6 eight-inch or 4 twelve-inch digits. If you overload one the digits flicker or cycle.
Two connections, and the breaker is off for both:
- Digits to driver: red leads together to the driver's red output, black leads together to the driver's black output.
- Driver to house: driver brown to the house hot (black), driver blue to the house neutral (white).
Wire nuts on every joint. The install guide has the diagram if you want it drawn out.
Step 4: Result
Before I closed it up I put hot glue over the wire hole on the back of each digit and inside every wire nut so water has no way in. The porch circuit is on a smart switch, so the numbers come on at dark without anyone thinking about it. They are bright: the pizza guy has not missed the house since.
What I would do differently now
You do not need a backboard. The digits mount flush to siding, stucco or brick with the dowels and the anchors in the box, and flush mounting is what we recommend, because standing the digits off the wall exposes the wires and kills the glow. I used a board because it had to cover the hole from the old fixture.
The driver now ships with an inline dimmer on barrel connectors, so if the numbers are too bright for your taste you can turn them down instead of fighting the porch light.
If you are buying, the address builder on the homepage adds the right number of drivers for the digits you pick.