Amber
Below warm white. It reads as candle or lantern light, flattering on old brick and terracotta and too orange on cream stucco. On a beachfront lot it is chosen for a different reason entirely, covered at the foot of this page.
Specialty
LED landscape lighting for Naples homes, specified fixture by fixture
Asking for LED is the start, not the decision. Every fixture still needs a color, a beam, a brightness and a body that will survive salt air. Those four choices are what decide how the property looks.
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If someone has quoted you LED
What you are actually choosing when you ask for LED outdoor lighting in Naples
If you have been told a system will be LED and assumed that settles it, it does not. LED is the light source. Each fixture still needs four decisions: color temperature, beam spread, output level and what the fixture is made of. Those are what you see at night, and in Naples the last one decides how long it lasts.
LED has replaced halogen in landscape lighting for good reasons. FX Luminaire’s design guide says LED fixtures "consume 30-80% less energy than incandescent lamps," and its lamp table lists an MR-16 LED sold as a 35-watt halogen equivalent drawing an actual 5 watts. The U.S. Department of Energy says LEDs "use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs" and last 25 times longer.
None of that tells you whether the house will look good. Two LED systems with the same fixture count can look nothing alike, because one was specified light by light and the other was ordered by the box. The rest of this page walks through the four decisions in the order we make them.
We work with FX Luminaire, the lighting brand of Hunter Industries, and the facts about fixtures on this page are FX Luminaire’s own, quoted with their sources.
- Color
- How warm or cool the white is, in Kelvin. Chosen against the wall and the planting.
- Beam
- How tightly the light is held: a column, a wash or a downward spill.
- Body
- Brass, copper, stainless or aluminum, and how it is sealed. Decides life in salt air.
LED color temperature
Color temperature: what Kelvin does to stucco, stone and palms
Color temperature, measured in Kelvin, describes how warm or cool white light looks; the U.S. DOE notes it describes the light, not the objects it lights. FX Luminaire labels 2,700 to 3,000K warm and 3,600 to 5,500K cool. On a Naples house, warm keeps stucco cream and palms green. Drag to compare.
Warm white, around 2,700K
FX Luminaire labels 2,700 to 3,000K warm. This is the color most Naples houses look best in: cream stucco stays cream, clay tile stays red, and palms keep their green without going yellow.
A slightly crisper warm white
Still in FX’s warm band, a little whiter. It suits pale gray and white elevations and silver-leaved planting, and it is a good match where a house has newer, whiter exterior lights already.
Cool white
FX labels 3,600 to 5,500K cool. On a Naples house it flattens stucco to concrete and turns green planting blue-gray. It has a place on very modern architecture and almost none on a garden.
Illustration: the color is laid over the lit parts of the photograph to show the difference, not measured. Sources, read 2026-10-13: U.S. DOE, LED color characteristics fact sheet; FX Luminaire design guide (2021).
LED beam spread
Beam spread: a column, a wash, or a spill
Beam spread is how tightly a fixture holds its light, and it matters as much as color. A narrow beam is a column that can climb a tall palm. A wide beam washes a wall or a canopy at close range. A shaded fixture spills a soft pool downward onto a path. Each is chosen per fixture, for what it lights. Try each on each below.
A column: narrow beam
- What it does
- Keeps the light together over a long distance, so it can climb a tall trunk and still arrive.
- Use it for
- Royal palms, tall columns, a flagpole, anything high and slim.
- Watch for
- A hard stripe up one side. Narrow beams show every error in aim.
A wash: wide beam
- What it does
- Spreads the light across a broad surface at close range.
- Use it for
- Walls, hedges, the underside of a canopy, a group of shrubs.
- Watch for
- Spill past the edges of what you meant to light.
A spill: downward pool
- What it does
- Sends light down and out from under a shade, in a soft pool.
- Use it for
- Paths, steps, low planting and the ground under seating.
- Watch for
- Seeing the lamp. The shade has to cover it from every approach.
Output
Brightness is set per fixture, not bought by the watt
With LED, watts measure power drawn, not light given, and a lamp sold as a halogen equivalent draws a fraction of the old wattage. Brightness is set fixture by fixture against what it lights and what surrounds it. FX Luminaire says its LED fixtures give the same brightness anywhere between 10 and 15 volts.
What the old watts mean now
Lamps are still sold by the halogen wattage they replace, which is useful for comparing and misleading for anything else. FX Luminaire’s own table lists MR-16 LED lamps sold as 20-watt, 35-watt and 50-watt equivalents drawing an actual 4.0, 5.0 and 7.0 watts. The same document says halogen landscape lights "can take anywhere between 10 and 50 watts of power each, and sometimes more."
Voltage still matters
Landscape lighting runs at low voltage; FX Luminaire says "a majority of landscape lighting systems operate on 12 V." Voltage falls along a cable, and FX’s guidance is that the input at each LED fixture "should always be between 10-15 VAC", and that its LED fixtures "will all be the same brightness" anywhere in that range. That is a real advantage over halogen, which dimmed with every volt lost. It does not remove the need to design for voltage drop: FX says it is "imperative" even with LED.
Less light, placed exactly, looks brighter than more light placed anywhere.
So how bright?
Less than you think, and different for each fixture. The specimen tree leads, the walls support it, the path is the lowest. We set levels on the property, and on a dimmable system they can be adjusted later without changing a lamp.
Sources, read 2026-10-13: FX Luminaire, Landscape lighting design guide (2021); FX Luminaire, LED system layout; FX Luminaire, LED fixture voltage support note; FX Luminaire, Advantages of LED lighting; U.S. DOE, Guide to energy-efficient lighting.
Fixture type
Integrated LED fixtures versus LED lamps in a socket
An integrated fixture has its LED built in, matched to its optics and sealed as a unit, with no lamp to change. An LED lamp fits the socket of a fixture designed for halogen. On new work we specify integrated almost always. In an existing system, sound fixtures can take LED lamps and the rest are replaced. Choose one to compare.
Integrated LED fixtures
- What it is
- The LED is built into the fixture, on a board matched to its optics and its heat sink, and the fixture is sealed as a unit.
- Sealing
- FX Luminaire calls its sealed cable entry MoistureBlock and describes it as "a 100% watertight cable entry that stops moisture intrusion."
- Service
- There is no lamp to change.
- Where we use it
- Most of what we specify on new work is integrated, because the optics and the seal are designed together.
Photograph: FX Luminaire product photograph, as shown on the NightScapes site.
LED lamps in a socket
- What it is
- An LED lamp shaped like the halogen bulb it replaces, fitted into an existing socket.
- When it makes sense
- In a sound fixture that is worth keeping.
- What it can add
- FX Luminaire notes that its ZD MR-16 lamps can "add zoning and dimming capabilities to any brand of low-voltage lighting fixture."
- Converting a system
- Covered on its own page: converting an existing halogen system.
Photograph: FX Luminaire product photograph, as shown on the NightScapes site.
How the choice is made
- New work
- Integrated, almost always, because the optics and the seal are designed together.
- An existing system
- Fixture by fixture, keeping the bodies that are sound and replacing the ones that are not.
- Where it is decided
- On the property, not from a catalog: converting an existing halogen system has its own page.
Near the Gulf
Salt air: brass, copper, and what fails first near the Gulf
Near the coast, salt settles on every fixture and speeds corrosion. Brass and copper weather to a dark patina and keep working; coated finishes protect until they are breached. FX Luminaire describes its brass and copper Premium Level as giving the highest level of protection from the environment. Connections, not bodies, usually fail first.
What FEMA says about salt
FEMA’s guidance on coastal construction puts it plainly: "Salt spray from breaking waves and onshore winds significantly accelerates the rate of corrosion of metal connectors and fasteners." It notes that airborne salt "declines rapidly in the first 300 to 3,000 feet landward of the shoreline," but that studies have found faster corrosion "as far inland as 5 to 10 miles." Most of Naples is inside that distance.
Brass, copper, stainless, aluminum
FX Luminaire offers fixtures in "high-grade brass, copper, or stainless steel for upscale installations, or aluminum fixtures for a more modest look." Brass and copper have no coating to lose; they darken, and can grow the greenish patina FX defines as a thin layer that forms on copper and its alloys. Aluminum depends on its finish. FX describes a two-layer anodized and powder-coated finish on some aluminum fixtures; we still keep aluminum back from the water.
What actually fails first
In our experience on Naples properties, the body is rarely the first thing to go. It is the splice in the cable, where water and salt creep into the copper, or the screw that holds a fixture to a dock. FX’s sealed cable entry addresses the first at the fixture; every field connection is sealed as well.
Sources, read 2026-10-13: FEMA, Technical Bulletin 8, Corrosion protection for metal connectors in coastal areas; FX Luminaire, Designer and Standard Series fixtures; FX Luminaire, Technology.
Over the years
How an LED fixture ages
An LED fixture does not burn out the way a halogen lamp did. ENERGY STAR says LEDs "typically do not burn out or fail" and defines their lifetime as the point where light output has fallen by 30 percent. So an LED system ages by slowly dimming, while dirty lenses, tired connections and drifting aim take light away far sooner.
That is why matching lamp color when older fixtures are relamped and regular lens cleaning matter more than the LED rating.
Ask about LED lightingAn LED system, over timeNightScapes Landscape Lighting
- It dims, it does not die ENERGY STAR: LEDs "typically do not burn out or fail." Output falls slowly instead.
- Rated life is a dimming point ENERGY STAR defines LED lifetime as when "light output decreases by 30 percent."
- Figures differ by document FX Luminaire states 50,000 hours or more, up to 55,000, and 72,000, depending on the page.
- Lenses dull first Mineral film, salt and grime on the lens take more light away than the LED loses.
- Connections next Moisture at a splice is the commonest reason an LED fixture flickers or goes dark.
- Aim drifts Planting grows and stakes lean. The light is fine and pointed at the wrong thing.
Sources: ENERGY STAR; FX Luminaire, read 2026-10-13.
Beyond warm white
Where warm white stops: amber and color on the same property
Most of a Naples property is lit in one warm white. Two exceptions sit beside it. Near a nesting beach, the seaward fixtures may need long-wavelength amber light. And color-capable fixtures can put color on a palm or a pool for an occasion, then return to warm white. Each is a separate zone.
Amber near the beach
Sea turtle lighting guidance asks for light sources that produce only long-wavelength light, which FWC describes as 560 nm or greater, amber, orange or red. That is a different requirement from a warm white, and FWC’s certification criteria rule out color-changing fixtures set to amber. It is covered in full on our page about turtle-friendly coastal lighting.
Color for an occasion
FX Luminaire’s color fixtures use red, green, blue and white LEDs to produce, in its words, "up to 30,000 colors." Used well, color is an event: the palms in team colors for a game, the pool in blue for a party, warm white the rest of the year. How a property is divided so color can go on one part while the rest stays warm is on our page about zoning, dimming and color.
Facades, palms and the whole-property picture each have their own pages: grazing and washing a facade, beam spread on a royal palm, and how a whole property is designed after dark.
Who does the work
Who specifies the LED: NightScapes Landscape Lighting, Naples
NightScapes Landscape Lighting has designed and installed landscape lighting in Naples since 1998, through the move from halogen to LED. Todd and Sherry own and run it, outdoor lighting is the only work it does, it is a Hunter Preferred Contractor, and its Google Business Profile shows 63 reviews at 5.0. Each fixture is specified on the property.
We have lit properties here through both technologies, which is useful when you are deciding what to keep from an older system. We work across Naples, Marco Island and Bonita Springs, and through Lee and Collier counties.
We specify on the property, with samples in hand, because the right color and beam for a wall can only be judged against that wall.
Ask about LED lighting
- Since 1998
- Lighting properties in Naples and Southwest Florida.
- Todd and Sherry
- Family and locally owned. The owners are the people you deal with.
- 63 Google reviews
- Rated 5.0 on the NightScapes Google Business Profile.
- Hunter Preferred Contractor
- Hunter Industries is the maker of FX Luminaire fixtures and Luxor controllers.
Questions we hear
Questions Naples homeowners ask about LED landscape lighting
How bright, which Kelvin, what survives salt air, whether finishes change color, brass or copper or aluminum, how long LED lasts and why use a contractor. Every figure in these answers is quoted from the manufacturer or the government source named on this page, and where those sources disagree with each other, we say so.
NightScapes Landscape Lighting Outdoor lighting only, Naples since 1998 Choose a question
Ask us about LED lighting. Choose a question, or call and we will answer it on the phone.
How bright should an LED landscape light be: 5 watts, 6, 7?
Watts are the wrong question with LED. They measure power drawn, not light given, and two fixtures of the same wattage can differ a great deal in output and beam. Brightness is set per fixture, against what it is lighting and what is around it. Most fixtures end up lower than people expect.
Is there a big difference between 2,700K and 3,000K?
It is a small step, and both fall in what FX Luminaire labels warm (2,700 to 3,000K). On cream stucco and clay tile, 2,700K usually looks richer. On pale gray or white walls, or beside newer, whiter house lights, 3,000K can sit better. What matters most is choosing one and using it consistently, so the property does not show two whites.
What should I use in a salt-air area?
Fixtures whose protection does not depend on a coating. FX Luminaire describes its brass and copper Premium Level as giving "the highest level of protection from the environment," and both metals weather to a patina rather than flaking. FEMA notes that salt spray "significantly accelerates" corrosion of metal near the coast. Connections matter as much as bodies.
Will the finish change color?
On brass and copper, yes, and it is meant to. They darken, and over time can develop the greenish patina FX Luminaire defines as a thin layer that forms on copper and its alloys due to corrosion. That surface is protective. Painted and powder-coated finishes are meant to stay as they are, and near the Gulf they are the ones to watch.
Brass, copper or aluminum?
FX Luminaire offers all three, describing brass, copper and stainless steel for upscale installations and aluminum "for a more modest look." On a property close to the water we lean toward brass and copper, because they weather rather than flake. Inland, a well-finished aluminum fixture can be a sound choice. It is decided by where each fixture will live.
How long will LED landscape lights last?
There is no single honest figure. FX Luminaire states 50,000 hours or more on one page, up to 55,000 hours in its 2021 design guide and 72,000 hours on a product page, and ENERGY STAR defines LED life as the point where output has dropped by 30 percent. In practice, lenses, connections and aim need attention long before the LED does.
Why use a contractor for LED lighting?
FX Luminaire, whose products we use, sells them "through a select network of wholesale distributors" and says they are "designed for installation by professional contractors." The fixtures are only half of it. Beam, color, level and position are decided on the property, and that is the work a homeowner is really asking for.
Free Consultations and Estimates
Ready to choose the light, not just the bulb?
Tell us about the property and what you want lit. We walk the property with you and help you choose the color and beam for your own walls and trees before anything is specified.
- Color judged on your own wall
- Beam chosen per fixture
- Free consultation and estimate
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