Lighted, illuminated, light up: what backlit means
People search for these as lighted house numbers, illuminated address numbers, light up house numbers or LED
address signs. What comes back is usually one of three things: a solar plaque with the number printed or stuck
on, a sign lit from the front, or backlit metal digits. We make the third kind.
Every digit is its own piece of 304 stainless steel, 1.25 inches deep, with an LED strip inside that shines
back onto the wall. By day you see a clean metal number. At night the face stays dark and the wall around it
glows, which reads from the street without glaring at it. There is no plaque: the digits are the sign, spaced
however your wall needs.
Two finishes, four sizes
| Finish | Light | Price per digit |
| Brushed stainless, Arial | 6000K cool white | 4 in US$59.99 8 in US$89.99 12 in US$129.00 |
| Matte black, Neutra | 3000K warm white | 4 in US$59.99 8 in US$89.99 12 in US$129.99 |
| Matte black, Neutra, 6 inch | 3000K and 6000K in every digit; you pick at install | 6 in US$79.99 |
The 6 and the 9 are one part turned over, listed as 6/9. Sizes are nominal: a 12 inch digit is 11 13/16
inches tall, an 8 inch is 7 7/8 and a 4 inch is 3 7/8.
Which size
| Where the numbers go | Size |
|---|
| Beside the front door, or on a mailbox post | 4 inch |
| A porch or entry set back from the path | 6 inch |
| A garage, fence or front wall facing the street | 8 inch |
| A long driveway, corner lot or deep setback | 12 inch |
| Apartment, office or studio suite doors | 4 inch |
4 inch reads from the sidewalk, 8 inch from the street. When in doubt, go one size up.
Warm or cool light is mostly about the wall. Warm 3000K suits brick, wood and warm stucco. Cool 6000K suits
grey, white, black cladding and concrete. If you cannot decide, the 6 inch carries both and you choose when you
wire it.
Wired or solar
Solar house number signs cost $20 to $40 and need no wiring: a small panel charges a battery by day and the
sign switches itself on at dusk. Where you cannot get a wire to the wall, solar is the right answer.
What you give up is consistency. A solar sign runs on whatever sun its panel caught that day, so a north
facing wall, a covered porch or a week of winter cloud means a dim number, and the digits are usually printed
or stuck onto a plaque. Wired backlit digits run from a 12V driver and light the same every night. The LEDs are
rated 36,000 hours to 70 percent brightness, about ten years at ten hours a night.
The cost of wired is one low-voltage cable. With the plug-in driver it plugs into an indoor outlet and only
the thin 12V cable passes through the wall. The wire-in driver connects to house wiring in place of a porch
light, like any outdoor fixture. To have the numbers come on at dusk, put the plug-in driver on a smart plug or
timer, or wire a dusk-to-dawn photocell ahead of the wire-in driver.
The full comparison, with winter sun figures and battery life: solar vs wired house numbers.
Power: one driver runs a whole address
Drivers are US$30.00, 12V DC, 1 amp, plug-in or wire-in, and every one ships with an inline dimmer. One
driver runs up to 7 four inch digits, 6 six inch, 6 eight inch or 4 twelve inch. A four digit address in 12
inch needs one driver; five digits in 12 inch need two. Light both colours in the 6 inch and it draws double, so
one driver runs three. The address builder does this count for you. If you already have a 12V DC supply of 1
amp or more at the wall, the digits run on that.
Installing them
Mount the digits flush to the wall. Each one ships with two dowels and wall anchors, plus two screws with
rubber stoppers for surfaces you can reach behind; the 6 inch adds hex bolts and a drilling template cut to the
digit's outline. We do not recommend standing them off the wall, because it exposes the wires and breaks the
glow into patches.
With the plug-in driver it is a do-it-yourself job: drill, press the digits in, join two low-voltage wires,
plug in. The wire-in driver goes in like an outdoor light fixture; if that is not something
you do, an electrician will make short work of it. The install guide covers
layout, drilling, wiring and both drivers with diagrams, and
this customer build shows a real one start to finish.
Near salt water, the guide's coastal section covers the coating and
rinse routine that keeps stainless bright.
Ordering
Build your address in the address builder, or pick digits from the product pages above. Orders
ship from Denver within two business days by USPS or UPS, with live rates at checkout. Returns are accepted for
30 days from delivery on unused, unmounted items in their original packaging, and digits and drivers carry a three year warranty. JELSCO has lit more
than 16,000 homes since 2017; see some of them.
The same digits number apartment buildings, offices and studio suites. For a whole building, get a written
quote on the commercial page.
More answers are in the FAQ.