Multiply the number of fixtures by the installed rate and you have most of your landscape lighting cost. At Gemmell’s published $250 to $350 per installed fixture, a front yard with six to ten fixtures works out to $1,500 to $3,500, and a whole property at 28 to 40 fixtures to $7,000 to $14,000, before separate transformer or control lines.
Where do these numbers come from?
From one figure: $250 to $350 per installed fixture, the band Gemmell publishes for its own installs. The headline range, and what pushes a Nashville quote up or down, is covered on our page about what outdoor lighting costs in Nashville. This post just does the multiplication.
None of it is a quote, and the fixture counts are example scopes chosen to show how the total moves. Your property may not fit any of them neatly.
For comparison, national cost guides put the market range at roughly $150 to $350 per professionally installed fixture once labor, wire and the transformer share are counted. Gemmell’s band sits in the upper part of that national spread, and what it prices is solid brass and copper. We spec those over painted aluminum because Middle Tennessee humidity and freeze-thaw cycles punish any coating. If you want to compare fixture materials yourself, our guide to the best low-voltage fixtures gets into them.
| Example scope | Fixtures | Installed at $250–$350 each | At the $300 midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front yard | 6 to 10 | $1,500 to $3,500 | 8 fixtures = $2,400 |
| Front plus one side | 14 to 20 | $3,500 to $7,000 | 17 fixtures = $5,100 |
| Whole property | 28 to 40 | $7,000 to $14,000 | 34 fixtures = $10,200 |
What does lighting just the front yard cost?
In this example the front yard takes six to ten fixtures. That might be a few uplights on the facade or the entry trees, path lights along the main walk and one or two accents by the porch, for $1,500 to $3,500 installed before any separate transformer, wiring or control lines.
A good part of that spread is the rate, not the count. The same ten-fixture layout is $2,500 at the bottom of the band and $3,500 at the top, a $1,000 difference with nothing added to the yard. Where a particular job lands inside the band gets settled on the design walk.
Adding a side yard
Bring one side of the house into the plan and the example climbs to 14 to 20 fixtures, or $3,500 to $7,000. Square footage isn’t what’s being priced here. A narrow side yard with three mature trees along the fence and a gate at the end needs more fixtures, and a longer cable run, than a wider one that’s open lawn. That’s why two side yards the same size can end up at opposite ends of the range. Both of the first two scopes overlap the $2,000 to $6,000 that national cost guides give as the market range for a typical home’s project.
What does it cost to light a whole property?
Front, both sides and the rear, zoned so each area can run on its own schedule, comes to 28 to 40 fixtures in this example. That’s $7,000 to $14,000 installed, or $10,200 for 34 fixtures at the $300 midpoint, which puts it above the national project range.
That’s to be expected, since most of the extra fixtures go around the back of the house. A long driveway, several mature hardwoods worth moonlighting, a rear terrace or a water feature can each push a design past the top of the range. Acreage alone won’t. A big lot that’s mostly open lawn can price out below a smaller one crowded with oaks.
Why does the fixture count change so much from one house to the next?
Start with the trees, then look at the facade and the length of the walk and drive. A mature oak or magnolia generally earns its own uplight, sometimes two if the canopy is wide, while a young or small tree may not need one.
A long front elevation or a two-story entry needs several uplights spaced so the wall reads evenly, since one fixture can’t be stretched across more wall than it reaches. On paths and drives, low-level lights are spaced for even coverage, not lined up like a runway, so a longer walk or drive adds fixtures at a fairly steady interval rather than in jumps.
These stack. A house with several big hardwoods out front and a long drive can hit whole-property fixture counts from the front elevation alone, before the side or rear is even discussed. Every fixture added or cut moves the total by $250 to $350, and that’s the lever you have if the first design comes in above your budget.
What else should a written quote show?
Fixture count times rate gets you close, but a written quote should break out a few more lines. The transformer is sized to the load the design puts on it. Zoning and wiring decide whether the front, sides and rear can run on separate schedules or all switch together.
Controls vary, with a basic photocell or timer at the cheap end and app control with scene dimming adding hardware and setup time. The quote should also say what the warranty covers. Gemmell’s workmanship warranty covers the wiring, connections, fixture mounting and transformer programming, and the written proposal is in your hands before any work starts.
When you’re holding two quotes side by side, those lines are what make them comparable. Our notes on choosing between lighting companies cover the rest of that comparison. How the plan itself gets drawn is on the landscape lighting design page, and the landscape lighting page shows how trees, gardens and paths are designed as one system instead of being priced piece by piece. This landscape lighting cost math only becomes a number for your yard after the free design walk, which is done at dusk and is the first step in our three-step process. Phil does every walk himself. You can book one on our contact page.
Common questions
Is it cheaper to install landscape lighting in phases?
Phasing spreads the cost out, but it only saves money if the first phase sizes the transformer and main wiring for the whole eventual plan. With that groundwork in place, a later phase ties into the existing run instead of opening a new trench across the lawn.
Without it, a second phase can cost more per fixture than it would have if it had gone in with the first.
Does the transformer cost extra on top of the fixtures?
Ask for the answer in writing. A quote should say whether the transformer, cable and design time are included in the per-fixture price or listed as separate lines. That detail decides whether two quotes can be compared at all, because $300 per fixture with the transformer included is not the same price as $300 per fixture plus a transformer line.
Do dimming and app control add to the cost?
Yes. A photocell or timer is the least expensive way to run a system, since it switches everything on and off together. App control, dimming and scene presets need extra hardware and setup, so they add to the installed price on top of the fixture count.
If control matters to you, bring it up on the design walk so it’s priced into the quote from the start.
How much does landscape lighting cost to run each month?
You can work it out yourself. Add up the wattage of the LED fixtures on the system, multiply by the hours it runs each night and by the days in the month, divide by 1,000 to get kilowatt-hours, then multiply by the rate on your electric bill. Hours matter as much as fixture count, which is why zoning and timer settings are worth deciding on the design walk.
