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Table of Contents
Summary: A quick look at what I actually spent on the whole project, grouped by the big buckets.
🛑 This guide is a major work-in-progress. There are missing details, missing pictures, missing articles, and it isn't properly organized in a lot of places. I'm continuing to update it daily, but I've decided to publish what I have so the community can start giving input.
This page was last updated: December 19, 2025 @ 3:01 PM
Total Cost
Let’s just rip the bandaid off right away and start this guide by talking about what it all cost. A lot of us that are interested in these lights simply like to do things ourselves and enjoy being handy, but there’s still the aspect of "an installer me quoted an insane price and I want to save money."
This page is the high-level overview of what the whole project cost me. If you’re looking for a full bill of materials with product links, quantities, what items I didn’t need, etc, you’ll find all that on the next few pages after this one.
Some Notes Before the Numbers
- These totals include everything I had to get for this project (including renting a lift).
- They do not include general-purpose tools like a drill, saw, tape measure, ladder, and so on. I didn’t have to buy any of them and I figure most people have these things already. I do include a list of what tools I personally use though in case you need any recommendations.
- Some items/costs technically should be split across categories, but I grouped things where they felt most relevant.
- For example, something like wire connectors go in the control box and on the lights.
- There are also things like the light kit which included the LEDs, tracks, and power supplies in one purchase. Those 3 items span all 3 categories, but I didn’t split the price between them since it was bought as one package.
Total Cost Summary
All prices listed here and in the following pages are what I paid for these products in late 2025. While compiling this list I found a number of items that were now more expensive than I paid, but I found even more that were less expensive than I paid!
I had a pretty good idea of what I spent on this project, but it was still a bit scary actually calculating it all. If it wasn’t for this tutorial then I probably wouldn’t have…
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Control Box | $552.34 |
| Lights | $2,114.19 |
| Tracks | $1,537.91 |
| TOTAL | $4,204.44 |
Was It Worth It?
This obviously isn’t a cheap project, but it’s significantly less than I would have paid to have someone do it for me. And while I get satisfaction out of doing things on my own anyways, I also care about my house more than anyone else… meaning I was able to make everything perfect and exactly how I wanted instead of how a 3rd party installer wants (which almost always means doing things the fastest way possible so they can get paid and move on to the next job).
This deserves repeating: no installer is going to care about your house or your lights the way that you will, so they aren't going to put in the effort you will.
In my eyes, the cost was absolutely worth it. I’m extremely happy with the outcome.
Lowering the Cost
This project can absolutely be done for less. I give some tips and comments throughout this tutorial on where you could save costs, but the big ones are:
- Skip the lift rental. Hopefully you don’t need it, or you can find a way to get by without it.
- Install less LEDs
- Use the 5 puck per meter strands instead of the 10 per meter that I used.
- I installed mine on all 4 sides of my house. Doing it on only the front would lower the cost a lot.
- There are a few upgrades I went with (like more expensive smart relays) simply because I could. Avoiding those will save a bit of money here and there.
Full Bill of Materials
The next few pages break things down to specific parts, why I chose them, where to get them, what I paid for them, and what I may have done different.