Cost of Landscape Lighting Installation
Professional landscape lighting in the Okanagan typically runs $4,500 to $30,000+, depending mostly on how many fixtures your property needs and how complex the layout is. A modest 6-10 fixture package starts around $4,500, while a full-property system with 21-35 fixtures can reach $15,000-$30,000 or more.
What Drives the Price: Fixture Count, Not Square Footage
Unlike a patio or a wall, landscape lighting isn’t priced by area — it’s priced by fixture count, because fixture count is what actually determines the scope of work: how many locations need low-voltage wiring runs, how many transformers and connections the system needs, and how much time goes into aiming and focusing each light once it’s installed. Here’s how that breaks down on a typical Okanagan property:
6-10 fixtures — $4,500 to $8,000. This tier covers the essentials: a front entry, a few key trees or architectural features, and maybe a path or two. It’s the right starting point for a smaller lot or a phased approach where you want to see the impact of professional lighting before expanding.
11-20 fixtures — $8,000 to $15,000. This is the most common range for a full front-and-back yard package: entry, facade wash, several specimen trees or plantings, a path or patio edge, and accent lighting on a retaining wall or water feature. Most mid-sized properties land here.
21-35 fixtures — $15,000 to $30,000. Larger properties, more elaborate landscaping, multiple zones (front, back, side yards, driveway, outdoor kitchen or pool area) and layered lighting design — uplighting, downlighting, path lighting, and accent lighting working together — fall into this range.
35+ fixtures — custom estimate. Estate-scale properties, extensive tree canopies, long driveways, or properties combined with major hardscape lighting (pool decks, outdoor kitchens, multiple water features) need a site visit and a custom design before a number makes sense.
Why “Basic Fixture Math” Doesn’t Work
It’s tempting to think of lighting cost as simply “number of fixtures times price per fixture,” the way a big-box store might sell a bundle. Professional-grade systems don’t work that way, and pricing them like they do sets the wrong expectation. A properly installed system is built around a low-voltage transformer sized correctly for the total load, buried and connected wiring runs planned to minimize voltage drop over distance, fixtures selected and positioned for the specific effect (grazing a stone wall reads very differently than uplighting a tree canopy), and on-site aiming and focusing once everything is live — often done at night, adjusting each fixture by eye. That labor and system design is a real share of the cost, not padding. It’s also why two properties with the same fixture count can land at different points within a tier: distance from the power source, number of separate zones, and terrain all affect installation time.
Adjustments that can move a project outside these baseline ranges include limited access (+10-20%), very difficult or hand-access areas (+20-35%), moderate slope (+10-20%), and steep slope, which typically requires a consultation rather than a flat percentage. Premium fixture selections (solid brass, specialty color-tunable, or high-end architectural fixtures) can add 15-35% as well.
Architectural landscape lighting by Kalagan Outdoor Design
Okanagan-Specific Factors for Landscape Lighting
Vernon and the wider Okanagan present a few conditions that affect lighting installation specifically. Freeze-thaw cycles through fall and spring shift soil and can disturb shallow wiring runs or fixture stakes if they weren’t installed with enough depth and slack, so proper burial depth matters more here than in a milder climate. Many Okanagan properties are also built on sloped or terraced lots with retaining walls, which is actually a great canvas for accent and step lighting but adds wiring distance and access complexity that factors into the fixture-count pricing above. And because a lot of the region’s outdoor living happens on decks, patios, and around pools well into the evening through the warm season, lighting is often planned alongside those hardscape projects rather than as an afterthought, which is worth keeping in mind if you’re budgeting for a patio or outdoor kitchen at the same time.
See the full scope of what’s included on our Outdoor Lighting service page. If you’re planning lighting alongside other hardscape work, you may also find these guides useful: Cost of a Paver Patio in the Okanagan, Cost of an Outdoor Kitchen in Kelowna, and Cost of a Retaining Wall in BC.
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