Lighting Installation in Tampa Bay: Recessed, Landscape, Outdoor & Under-Cabinet

Lighting Is the Upgrade You Notice Every Single Day

Of all the improvements a homeowner can make, lighting delivers the most change per dollar. A kitchen with a single dated flush-mount fixture and a dark island becomes a different room with six well-placed recessed lights, three pendants and under-cabinet strips on dimmers. A front yard that disappears at dusk becomes a welcoming entry with path lights and uplights on the palms. A lanai that nobody uses after dark becomes the best room in the house. Lightning Bay Electric designs and installs interior, exterior and landscape lighting for homes across Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Manatee counties.

We are a family owned and operated electrical contractor, licensed by the Florida DBPR under EC13013571, and lighting is some of our favorite work because it is visible and the homeowner gets to enjoy it immediately. The kitchen remodel lighting in our gallery, the pendants and recessed cans in Riverview and the globe pendants with under-cabinet lighting in a white Tampa kitchen, are real projects we completed. We also handle the commercial side, including the restaurant and venue accent lighting in Tampa shown on our commercial page.

Recessed Lighting Done Right

Recessed lighting is the backbone of modern interior lighting, and the details matter more than people expect. Spacing is the first one: a general rule is to divide the ceiling height by two to get the spacing between lights, so an 8 foot ceiling wants lights about 4 feet apart, and lights should sit 2 to 3 feet off the walls to avoid scalloping. Too few lights leaves dark pockets; too many looks like an airport runway. The second detail is the fixture itself. We install slim, canless LED wafer lights that fit between trusses and in shallow ceilings, and IC-rated housings where there is insulation contact, which is almost everywhere in a Florida attic.

Color temperature is the detail that makes or breaks the look. For living spaces and kitchens with warm wood tones we recommend 2700K to 3000K; for white kitchens and bathrooms 3000K to 3500K reads clean and bright without feeling clinical. Whatever you choose, keep it consistent across a room and adjoining rooms. Selectable-temperature fixtures let us dial this in on site. We put every group of lights on a quality LED-compatible dimmer, because the ability to take a kitchen from bright work light to soft dinner light is what makes the room feel finished. For remodels we coordinate with your cabinet and drywall trades; see our remodel electrical page for how that sequencing works.

Kitchen Pendants, Under-Cabinet and Accent Lighting

A kitchen needs three layers of light. Recessed lights provide general illumination. Pendants over the island or peninsula provide task light where you chop and style where you gather; we hang them 30 to 36 inches above the counter and center them on the island, not the room, which requires relocating the box more often than not. Under-cabinet LED strips are the layer most kitchens are missing, and they are the one that makes counters usable by eliminating the shadow your own body casts from overhead lights. We install hardwired low-profile strips with a dedicated dimmer, hidden behind the cabinet light rail, so there are no visible pucks or cords.

Accent lighting, toe-kick lighting, in-cabinet lighting for glass doors and LED tape in coves or above cabinets round out a kitchen or a great room. Smart dimmers and scene controls tie it together so one button sets the whole space; our smart home page covers the options.

Exterior, Security and Landscape Lighting Built for Florida

Outdoor lighting in Tampa Bay has to survive brutal sun, daily summer downpours, and, anywhere near the coast, salt air that turns cheap fixtures to powder in a couple of years. We install wet-rated soffit lights, sealed LED floods and motion security lights on proper weatherproof boxes with in-use covers, and we run exterior circuits with GFCI protection as code requires. For Apollo Beach, Ruskin, St. Pete, Clearwater, Dunedin and Bradenton homes we specify marine-grade brass, copper or stainless fixtures that develop a patina instead of corroding.

Low-voltage landscape lighting is the most transformative exterior upgrade. A transformer on a GFCI outlet feeds buried 12 gauge cable to path lights along walkways, uplights on palms, oaks and architectural features, wall washes on the front elevation, and downlights in trees for a moonlight effect. Everything runs on a photocell or astronomical timer so it turns on at dusk and off on schedule with no babysitting. Because the system is low voltage and the cable is shallow, it goes in with very little disruption to beds and sod. Pool cage and lanai lighting, dock lighting and waterfront lighting follow the same wet-location rules.

Pricing and Permits for Lighting Projects

In the Tampa area, adding recessed LED lights to an existing ceiling typically runs $150 to $300 per light including the fixture, wiring and a shared dimmer, so a six-light kitchen lands in the $1,000 to $1,800 range depending on attic access and whether a new circuit is needed. Pendant installation with a relocated box runs $200 to $400 per pendant plus the fixture. Under-cabinet lighting for a typical kitchen runs $500 to $1,200 installed. A basic landscape lighting system with a transformer and eight to twelve fixtures usually runs $1,500 to $3,500, with larger designs priced per fixture. Exterior security and soffit lighting is priced per fixture and circuit. We quote the entire project in writing before we begin.

Swapping a fixture in an existing box does not require a permit. Adding new circuits, new fixture locations, or line-voltage exterior lighting typically does in Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa and surrounding jurisdictions. We know the rules in each and pull the permit under license EC13013571 when one is required, which protects you and keeps the work documented for your insurer and a future sale.

Lanai, Pool Cage and Outdoor Living Lighting

In Tampa Bay the lanai is a room, and it deserves to be lit like one. A screened pool cage or covered lanai used for dinners, television and evenings by the pool needs the same layered approach as an interior space, executed with wet-rated fixtures and GFCI-protected circuits. We install wet-rated recessed lights in the lanai ceiling, outdoor-rated ceiling fans with lights on fan-rated boxes, wall sconces beside doors, and low-voltage LED tape along the cage frame or under a bar counter. Everything goes on dimmers so the space can go from bright enough to cook to soft enough to sit by the water. Outdoor televisions and sound systems get dedicated, protected outlets placed where the cords disappear.

Pool cages have a particular lighting challenge, because the screen structure itself casts shadows and because fixtures inside a cage get wet every time it rains sideways, which in summer is daily. We specify fixtures rated for wet locations rather than damp, run wiring in conduit along the cage frame where it is protected, and use warm white or amber LED where bugs are a concern, since insects are far less attracted to light below 3000K. Cage-mounted string lights, the kind that make a backyard feel like a restaurant patio, get a proper dedicated switched outlet rather than an extension cord to the nearest plug.

Beyond the lanai, outdoor kitchens need circuits for the grill igniter, refrigerator, ice maker and outlets, and anything near the pool falls under the clearance and GFCI rules covered on our pool electrical page. Docks and seawalls get their own lighting rules. Planning all of it together, ideally before a cage or lanai is built or rescreened, is cheaper and cleaner than adding pieces one at a time, and we are happy to work from your pool builder's or contractor's plans.

Let's Light Your Home

Bring us a photo of the room or the yard and a description of what you want, and we can usually sketch a plan and price quickly. Lightning Bay Electric serves all of Tampa Bay; find your city on the service areas page and see what homeowners say on the reviews page. Call (813) 897-2665 or use the contact form to get started.