How much does landscape lighting cost in Southwest Florida?

Understanding The Cost Of Outdoor Lighting

So you keep driving around your city, noticing all of your neighbors have beautiful landscape lighting and you start to wonder, how much does landscape lighting cost here in southwest Florida?

The short answer is that it depends on the project’s size, site conditions, installation material, and a long list of other factors. The good news is that we are not going to leave you there. Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the factors that go into the cost of installing a landscape lighting system by first talking about the minimum cost of landscape lighting.

The Minimum Cost Of Landscape Lighting

On smaller single-family homes, a basic landscape lighting system outfitted with a transformer, timer, and four to five brass uplights starts around $1,695. As you begin to add additional lighting fixtures, your cost per fixture/luminaire starts to decrease. This is because larger ticket items, including the transformer and wire, are already factored into the lighting system. On your average-sized single-family home, lighting design with 10-15 lighting fixtures typically does the trick of illuminating specimen trees, wall art, pathways, and aquatic features. Systems of this size can range from $3,000-$5,500 and are highly dependent on the type of lighting fixtures used and the installation methods. As you could imagine, a lighting fixture installed in a landscaping bed will cost less in labor than a fixture installed on your marble pool deck, where a diamond core bit is required for installation.

What Affects the Cost of Landscape Lighting In Southwest Florida

Many factors contribute to the overall cost of landscape lighting. Let’s take a closer look at a few of these factors in more intimate detail.

1.    Quality & Material of Lighting Fixtures:

Not all lighting fixtures are created equal. Many lighting fixtures sold at home good stores are manufactured of plastic or composite materials. Many of these fixtures will not survive more than a season in the South Florida climate. The top three lighting fixture materials we use are powder-coated aluminum, spun brass, and CNC Brass. Powder-coated aluminum is the most economical material and typically carries a manufactured warranty of ten years. The second tier material is spun brass. Spun brass patinas like your typical brass fixture but is not usually made of pure brass like CNC brass, making it slightly more susceptible to damage. CNC brass is the Rolls Royce of the lighting fixture selection. CNC brass is made from one solid piece of brass, making it one of the most durable lighting fixtures you can buy and almost always comes with a lifetime warranty.

2.    Site & Yard Conditions:

Typically the most time-consuming portion of constructing your lighting system is trenching the wire necessary to get power to all lighting fixtures. The labor involved in this stage is highly dependent on the type of roots and soil conditions present on the property. As you can probably imagine, trenching in soft white sand with minimal root growth will result in a short and easy trenching process compared to trenching on a rocky and rooty soil column.

3.    Type Of Lighting Fixture:

The type of lighting fixture is also a large factor in estimating the cost of installing a lighting system. Fixtures installed in the landscape’s soil will inevitably be more economical than fixtures being installed on hardscapes on the property, including pool decks, columns, and pergolas. Cost is largely correlated with the additional labor needed when installing such fixtures.

4.    Presence Of An Adequate Power Source:

If there is no adequate electrical source to power the lighting transformer, an exterior outlet will need to be installed in your outdoor lighting system. Adding a GFCI is typically a nominal charge that can vary from $249-$500.

5.    Total Wire Needed:

The lighting system’s cost is also dependent on the average distance between each fixture and the distance between the lighting transformer and the first fixture. The closer each lighting fixture is to each other shortens the wire’s length needed to construct the lighting system.

6.    System Controllability:

There are some manufacturers who have created some really cool lighting technology. The more controllability you have, the more advanced the technology and the higher the price. For example, one system we use allows the client to run their entire system from their smartphone. Some features include dimming, color-changing, theme creation, and zoning. These systems can cost 2 to 3 times the cost of a typical lighting system.

Final Thoughts

As you can probably imagine, many factors contribute to the ultimate cost of constructing your lighting system. We have installed lighting systems starting at $1,695 to $50,000+. If you are looking for a professional outdoor lighting company in Southwest Florida, look no further than Beacon Outdoor Lighting. We offer free consultations and free demonstrations!