Average cost of home outdoor landscape lighting: Explained and Detailed - The All Electric Lawn (2024)

Last Updated on October 2, 2023 by Kyle Whitley

If you’re looking to light up your home’s exterior, you might be interested in installing a landscape lighting system. With modern advancements, there are many different types of lights to choose from, including solar-powered and led low voltage outdoor lights! So how much does it cost to install one of these systems? Well, that mostly depends on the size and number of fixtures as well as the type of light source. Let’s take a look at the average cost of home outdoor landscape lighting.

How Much Does Landscape Lighting Cost in 2021?

The average price of professional landscape lighting is somewhere in the range of $1,000 to $10,000. This is only a ballpark figure, though. The cost of outdoor lighting installations really depends on the scope and complexity of the project. For instance, installing a single lamp post in your yard will cost much less than wirelessly connecting an elaborate series of lights that automatically turn on/off at different times of the day.

If you go the DIY route you can save a bunch of money by just paying for the materials and the landscape lighting fixtures. Your price drops dramatically with a whole system costing less than $1`000.

What Affects The Cost Of Landscape Lighting?

The cost of landscape lighting can be influenced by many factors including:

• The type of lighting that might be installed at the property (solar, led, low voltage, inline voltage)
• The type of ground it is installed on. Are you installing in the ground on a building or both?
• Whether the landscaping needs to be totally re-done or only parts need to be replaced.
• The number of lights you are wanting to use. Are you using 4 lights or 40?

What is the cost of landscape lighting?

Installing landscape lighting is an excellent way to add ambiance and value to your home. There are many factors that will affect landscape lighting costs, such as the size of your property and what type of lights you choose. The following provides some information on how much home outdoor landscape lighting can cost.

What is the cost of installing landscape lighting?

For a typical landscape project, it will take one person two to three hours to do the work. The tools and materials needed will cost about $150-$200. Lighting equipment will range from $50 – $1000+, including fixtures, ballasts, lighting transformers, low voltage cables, junction boxes, and wiring.

For a typical landscape lighting installation or outdoor lighting project, you might need to factor in the costs of a licensed electrician if you need help installing a GFCI (ground fault circuit) outlet. If you are using a landscape lighting contractor you might also have to factor in labor costs as well.

Individual fixtures can cost between $20 on the low end to $250 for up-scale fixtures.

Types of Landscape Lighting and Costs

Pathway Lights or Path Lights

Pathway or path lights are pretty self-explanatory, but they are used along walkways and pathways, in your landscape. The price for pathway or path lights ranges from $10 – $250 for an individual light. You can spend up to $1000 on a pathway light kit. Path lights are the most common type of outdoor lighting.

Floodlights

This probably the landscape lighting you are most familiar with. Floodlights are used to light up large areas of your landscape usually for safety and security reasons. Often these lights are motion sensor lights.

I personally have led flood lights on every corner of my home and pool area. You can have floodlights mounted to your home or on the ground. The price of floodlights ranges from $10 – $200. The costs on the upper end are usually for multiple lights.

Spotlights

Spotlights are used to place focus on a specific area of your landscape such as tree or architectural features of your home. The price of spotlights range from $10 -$200. On the lower end, you have single solar-powered spotlights, on the upper end you have in-line powered lights with custom finishes.

All the others

There are a bunch of specialized lights like deck lights, step lights, security lights, motion sensor lights, and solar lights. They all range in price from $10 -$200 as well.

How Much Do Landscape Lighting Materials Cost?

The cost of materials for outdoor landscape lighting depends on what type of lights you choose and how many are needed for your project.

Electric outdoor lighting typically falls into one of two categories: low-voltage systems and high-voltage systems.

Low-voltage lights, such as LED lights, have long life spans, cost less to purchase upfront and can save money in the long run due to their energy efficiency.

High-voltage lighting or inline lightingrequires a professional installation that may add to the overall cost of your project. With either type though, you should plan on spending about $1 to $2 per square foot for materials.

There are two other things to keep in mind as far as extra materials go. You might possibly have to install a new GFCI outlet which might involve a professional electrician. You might also want to install a timer, which will allow you to limit the amount of time the lights are on.

Is it worth it to use LED landscape lights?

LED lights are designed to have a long lifespan and low energy consumption, which makes them an excellent option if you’re considering turning your outdoor space into an ambient hang-out area. They also emit little heat from the bulb, which is useful when you’re considering more intimate settings or areas with susceptible plants or wildlife species. They are really the most cost effective light fixture.

The average lifespan of led landscape lights is 5 years and they are environmentally friendly. LED landscape lighting is a new and innovative way to light your outdoor space without causing harm to the environment. The best part about LED lights is that they use less energy and emit less heat than traditional halogen or mercury lights.

LED bulbs last about 40 times longer than halogen light bulbs, so you won’t have to change them every few months. LED lights also use about one-fifth the amount of electricity that regular outdoor lighting uses.

LED landscape lights are an inexpensive way to illuminate your outdoor living spaces and they could save you hundreds of dollars over the life of the light fixtures.

If you want to save on energy, then you should consider shopping for led landscape lights. The price of led landscape lights has also come down by more than 50% in recent years. Led landscape lighting is the new norm for any home or business that wants to optimize its outdoor lighting. Not only are there a vast number of benefits, but it’s much cheaper than other types of outdoor lighting.

LED landscape lights are worth it because they last for a long time and because they have good energy efficiency.

Are landscape lights costly to run?

Landscape lights, depending on their type and the number of hours of use for each day, can be quite costly to run. Halogen bulbs are more expensive to run. If you are using led landscape lights the cost might be minimized, however.

With the national average electricity price currently around $0.11 per kWh, you could spend less than $30 dollars powering 15 6watt led lights for 6 hours a night for an entire year.

A couple of things to remember are that the type of bulbs, number of lights, and how long you run the system will affect the running costs of your outdoor landscape lighting.