If you're looking at landscape lighting quotes and one uses LED and the other still uses halogen, you're really comparing two different eras of the trade. Both put light on your house, but they age very differently in Texas.
The short version
- LED: rated for a long service life, runs cool, uses less power, and holds its color well over time.
- Halogen: warmer out of the box, but has a much shorter bulb life, burns hot, and uses more power.
- What we install: solid brass fixtures with integrated LED lamps, typically 2700K warm white.
Color temperature is the real story
The old knock on LED was that it looked blue and cold. That was true a decade ago. Today, a quality 2700K LED fixture is virtually indistinguishable from halogen to the eye, with a warmer, more inviting glow that flatters brick, stone, and tree bark. The cheap 4000K and 5000K LEDs you see at big-box stores are what give LED a bad name.
What we spec
2700K for warm architectural and landscape lighting. 3000K if a homeowner wants a slightly crisper white on modern architecture. We do not install anything cooler than 3000K on a home.
Lifespan and total cost
Halogen lamps have a relatively short rated bulb life. On a system that runs from dusk to midnight year-round, that can mean replacing bulbs fairly often across a full property. LED fixtures are rated for a much longer service life, though actual lifespan depends on the fixture quality and how the system is used.
Energy and transformer load
A halogen system pulls three to five times the wattage of an equivalent LED system. That means bigger transformers, heavier wire, and a noticeable bump on your electric bill. LED lets us do more lighting on less infrastructure and leaves room to add fixtures later.
When halogen still comes up
Occasionally we're asked to repair an older halogen system. If the fixtures themselves are still solid brass and in good shape, we can retrofit LED lamps into them and keep the housings. That's usually the smartest move: keep the good hardware, upgrade the light source.
What this means for your quote
If a contractor proposes a new halogen system, it's worth asking why. For most homeowners, LED costs less to run, lasts longer, and looks just as warm and inviting with the right color temperature and a quality fixture. It's why most of the industry has shifted toward LED for new installations.
