Outdoor lighting installation cost

Outdoor lighting costs $200 to $600 per fixture installed for line-voltage work, and $100 to $300 per fixture for low-voltage landscape lighting. A typical whole-house scheme is $2,000 to $6,000.

The distinction between the two systems is the whole decision. Line voltage means an electrician, a permit and a trench. Low voltage means a transformer, cable laid in a shallow furrow, and a job a homeowner can genuinely do.

What it costs

Low voltage is the right answer for landscape

A low-voltage system runs at 12 volts from a transformer plugged into an outdoor outlet. The cable can be laid a few inches deep, fixtures push into the ground, and in most jurisdictions no permit is required.

That makes it:

• Safe to install yourself
• Cheap to change your mind about, which matters because you will
• Easy to extend later
• Harmless if a spade goes through the cable

Line voltage belongs on the house: wall lights, floodlights, soffit lighting, and anything on a switch inside. Landscape lighting in the yard should be low voltage unless there is a specific reason otherwise.

Sizing the transformer, the one technical bit

Add up the wattage of every fixture and choose a transformer rated at least 25% above it. A 200 watt transformer running 150 watts of lighting has room to add two more fixtures later; one running 195 watts does not.

Voltage drop is the other consideration and the one that produces disappointing results. A long run of thin cable delivers less than 12 volts to the far end, and those fixtures are visibly dimmer. The fixes are thicker cable, splitting the run into several from the transformer, or a hub layout rather than a daisy chain.

With LED fixtures, which draw a fraction of what halogen did, both problems are much smaller than they used to be. A 100 watt transformer now runs a large scheme.

Designing it so it does not look like a runway

The most common mistake is a line of identical path lights at even spacing down both sides of a path. It reads as an airport.

What works better:

Light the things, not the ground. Uplight a tree, graze a textured wall, light the house number and the door. The path becomes visible from the spill.

Fewer fixtures, better placed. Three well-aimed uplights do more than twelve path lights.

Warm color temperature, 2700K or below. Cool white outdoors looks institutional. This single choice does more for how a yard looks at night than the fixture quality.

Hide the source. Aim so you see the lit object and not the lamp. Glare from a visible LED ruins the effect and annoys the neighbors.

Less than you think. Eyes adapt to darkness. A yard lit to daylight levels is unpleasant; one lit gently is not.

Frequently asked questions

Can I install low-voltage lighting myself?

Yes, and it is one of the more satisfying homeowner jobs. The transformer plugs into an existing outdoor GFCI outlet, the cable lays in a shallow furrow, and the fixtures push in. The only real skill is aiming them at night, which takes an evening.

Do I need a permit?

For low voltage, usually not. For any line-voltage work, new circuits or trenching for 120V cable, yes in most places.

Are solar path lights worth it?

For a decorative marker, sometimes. They are dim, they fade over a season, the batteries last two years, and they do not work in the shade, which is where paths often are. As the main lighting for anything, no.

What about motion sensors?

Excellent on floodlights at a garage or a side gate, where you want light only when something is there. Poor on the front approach, where a light that snaps on is less welcoming than one that is already lit.

How much does it cost to run?

An LED landscape scheme of a dozen fixtures draws 30 to 80 watts total. Running six hours a night, that is roughly $10 to $25 a year. It is not a meaningful running cost.