Is LED or halogen better for outdoor lighting?

LED is the better choice for almost all outdoor garden lighting today. It uses far less power, runs much cooler, lasts significantly longer, and is available in warm colour temperatures that suit gardens well. Halogen is largely a legacy technology at this point.

Does halogen lighting cost less to run than LED?

No — the opposite. Halogen fittings use far more power for the same brightness, so they cost noticeably more to run over a year, even though the fittings themselves are sometimes cheaper to buy initially.

Do LED fittings last longer near the coast?

Generally yes. LED fittings run cooler than halogen, which puts less thermal stress on seals and gaskets over time — and it's often a failed seal, not the light source, that lets salt-laden moisture into a fitting. Combined with marine-grade housings, LED fittings tend to hold up better in exposed coastal conditions.

Comparison

LED vs Halogen Outdoor Lighting: Which Lasts Longer?

Updated July 20265 min readBy Eastbourne Garden Lighting Co.

The short answer

LED is the better choice for almost all outdoor garden lighting today. It uses far less power, runs much cooler, lasts significantly longer, and comes in warm colour temperatures that suit gardens well. Halogen still turns up in older schemes and budget quotes, but it's largely a legacy technology at this point — especially for exposed coastal properties.

Please note: lifespan and running-cost figures below are typical manufacturer ranges for illustration, not guarantees for a specific product or installation.

If you're comparing quotes and one specifies halogen where another specifies LED, it's worth understanding why that matters beyond the headline price.

LED

The modern standard

Uses roughly 80–90% less power for the same brightness

Typical lifespan 25,000–50,000 hours

Runs cool, reducing thermal stress on seals and gaskets

Widely available in warm 2700K tones suited to gardens

Slightly higher upfront fitting cost in some ranges

Halogen

Largely legacy now

Sometimes cheaper to buy per fitting upfront

Simple, well-understood technology

Uses significantly more power — higher running cost

Typical lifespan only 1,000–2,000 hours

Runs hot, which stresses seals faster over time

Running cost — the gap is bigger than people expect

Illustrative comparison, typical garden fitting wattages.
	Typical wattage	Est. annual running cost*
LED garden fitting	2–6W	A few pounds a year
Halogen garden fitting	20–50W	Several times higher

*Based on a few hours' use per evening at typical UK electricity prices — illustrative only, not a quote.

Why LED tends to last longer on the coast

Heat is the enemy of a good seal. Halogen fittings run considerably hotter than LED, and that repeated heating and cooling cycle stresses rubber gaskets and seals faster over time. Once a seal fails, salt-laden moisture gets into the fitting — and on exposed Meads, Sovereign Harbour or Pevensey Bay properties, that moisture is already working hard against the metal housing too. LED's lower operating temperature doesn't eliminate the coastal corrosion problem, but it removes one of the two things attacking the fitting at once.

The two factors together

For a coastal garden, the combination that actually lasts is LED light source + marine-grade 316 stainless or brass housing. Either alone helps; together they're what gets a scheme to ten years rather than three. More in our coastal garden lighting guide.

Every fitting we specify is LED

We don't quote halogen — it's not the right choice for a modern garden scheme, especially near the sea. Get a full plan with fittings matched to your garden and exposure.

Book a Design Visit

Colour temperature matters as much as the technology behind it — see our guide to planning a garden lighting scheme for why we specify warm-white 2700K as standard, and how it fits into the wider plan.