Most pages written on this subject are recruitment pitches wearing a business-analysis costume. This one uses published industry figures, says where they come from, and is upfront that the interesting number is not the margin. It is what your crew is doing in June.
Every dollar figure below comes from published industry sources, named in the text. None of it is Luminair dealer pricing, which depends on territory and volume and gets discussed directly.
Start with the ticket size
Permanent outdoor lighting currently installs at roughly $16 to $38 per linear foot in the US market, with most homeowners paying $2,500 to $6,000 for a complete system, according to 2026 pricing guides from installers in the category.
Set that beside what the same house pays for seasonal work. Angi's 2026 data puts professional Christmas light installation at an average of $444, with most homeowners spending between $220 and $684, or roughly $2 to $5 per linear foot. Operators working the higher end of the market report residential jobs closer to $700 to $1,000.
So a single permanent install is worth somewhere between four and a dozen years of what that same address pays a seasonal crew. That is the headline, and it is real. It is also incomplete, which we will come back to.
What the margin benchmarks actually say
There is no reliable published margin figure for permanent lighting specifically, because the category is too young and too fragmented. What does exist is margin data for the trades that move into it. 2026 construction benchmarking puts typical gross and net margins at:
- Electrical: 35 to 50 percent gross, 10 to 18 percent net
- Landscaping and hardscaping: 40 to 55 percent gross, 10 to 20 percent net
- Roofing: 30 to 45 percent gross, 8 to 18 percent net
- Remodeling: 30 to 42 percent gross, 8 to 18 percent net
Seasonal light installation, by comparison, is commonly modelled at around 38 percent gross margin, in a 25 to 45 percent band depending on how tightly the operation runs.
Permanent lighting sits in the same neighbourhood as the specialty trades above. Anyone telling you it is a fundamentally different margin business is selling you something. What changes is not the percentage. It is what the percentage is a percentage of.
The real argument is utilization
Here is the part that gets left out of most dealer pitches.
A seasonal lighting business runs almost entirely from October through January. That is roughly 90 working days, and every problem you have in those 90 days is unrecoverable. A bad weather week is a bad week you cannot make up. A crew that quits in November is a crew you cannot replace in November. Your whole year rides on one quarter.
Permanent lighting is installed in a day, on a dry roof, in any month. It does not care that it is June. That means the same crew, the same ladders and the same truck can carry revenue through the eight months your current model has nothing for them to do.
That is the argument. Not a better margin, a longer year. If your business already survives on a compressed season, the value of a product that fills the other three quarters is much larger than the value of a few points of gross margin.
What starting actually costs
Published startup figures for a seasonal lighting operation run $15,000 to $60,000 for tools, inventory, vehicle and marketing. Adding permanent lighting to an existing exterior trade is materially cheaper than that, because you already own most of it. The ladders, the truck, the liability insurance and the crew are sunk costs you are already carrying.
What you are actually adding is product cost, training, and whatever it takes to reach a homeowner who has never heard of the category. That last one is usually the real expense, and it is the one people underestimate.
Who this does not suit
It is worth being direct about this, because a bad dealer is worse for us than no dealer.
- If you do not already do clean exterior work. This is a permanent alteration to somebody's fascia. Sloppy track is visible from the street for twenty years.
- If you cannot sell a $4,000 ticket. Selling a $450 seasonal service and selling a four-figure home improvement are different conversations. Plenty of good installers are not good at the second one.
- If you need revenue this quarter. The sales cycle on a high-ticket exterior product is longer than a seasonal booking. Budget for that.
- If you are only interested in Christmas. The customers who buy this are buying warm white on a Tuesday in April. If you cannot sell that, you are competing on December alone against everyone else.
The question worth asking yourself
Not "what is the margin." Ask what your crew costs you in the months they are not billing, and what a product that bills in those months is worth against that number. That is the calculation that decides whether this makes sense for your business, and it is different for every operation.
Common questions
Is permanent lighting more profitable than seasonal Christmas light installation?
Not on margin percentage. Published benchmarks put specialty trades in the 30 to 55 percent gross range and seasonal lighting around 38 percent, so they are broadly comparable. The difference is ticket size and season length: a permanent install runs $2,500 to $6,000 against roughly $444 average for a seasonal job, and it can be installed in any month rather than in a compressed 90-day window.
What does it cost to start offering permanent lighting?
Less than starting a lighting business from nothing, which published figures put at $15,000 to $60,000. If you already run an exterior trade you own the ladders, truck, insurance and crew. The real additions are product cost, training and the marketing needed to reach homeowners who have not heard of the category, which is usually the expense people underestimate.
What kind of business is the best fit for adding permanent lighting?
Existing exterior trades transition best: gutter and soffit installers, seasonal light companies, landscape lighting crews, roofers and general home improvement operators. The common requirements are clean fascia-level installation work, valid liability insurance, and the ability to sell a four-figure home improvement rather than a service call.
Keep reading
- Christmas Light Installers: Is Permanent Lighting Worth Adding?
- Adding Permanent Lighting to a Landscaping or Gutter Business
Every figure on this page is published industry data, not Luminair dealer pricing. Our actual dealer cost, territory terms and margin structure get covered on the qualification call, because they depend on your market and your volume. Start with the dealer program if you want that conversation.