If your home faces a Gulf beach, permanent lights can still work for you. They just need a plan for six months of the year. Florida’s sea turtle nesting season runs from May 1 through October 31, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) asks beachfront owners to keep decorative lights that are visible from the beach turned off during that time. Keywest Lights & Electric (KWLE), a woman-owned Florida electrical contractor (EC13014717) based in Seminole, installs JellyFish on beach towns from Tierra Verde to Clearwater Beach. Here’s how we set it up to follow the rules.
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Tell us what you need and where you are. A licensed electrician will call or text you back to set a time. For an emergency, call (727) 476-7079, 24/7.
Beach home questions: (727) 476-7079.
What the FWC asks for
The FWC’s beachfront lighting guidance comes down to three “golden rules”:
- Keep it low
- Mount fixtures as low as practical and use the lowest light output that does the job.
- Keep it long
- Use only long-wavelength light, 560 nanometers or longer, which means amber, orange or red.
- Keep it shielded
- Fixtures should point fully downward and hide the bulb or glowing lens from the beach.
For decorative lights such as string lights and uplights, the FWC is more direct: turn them off, and leave them off until nesting season ends on October 31. Lights needed for safety shouldn’t simply be shut off. Instead, they should be changed to meet the golden rules, or replaced with fixtures the FWC certifies as wildlife lighting.
Where JellyFish fits
JellyFish is a color-changing decorative and accent system. It can show amber, orange and red, but it isn’t on the FWC’s certified wildlife lighting list, and we don’t present it as turtle-safe. On a beach home, we treat any run visible from the sand as decorative lighting and schedule it off from May 1 through October 31. If you need safety lighting on the beach side, that’s a job for certified wildlife fixtures, and our electricians can install those separately.
The two-zone plan
A single-zone JellyFish install runs the whole house together. On beach homes, we strongly recommend the extra KWLE two-zone option:
- Street zone: the side facing the road. It can run normally all year, subject to local rules.
- Beach zone: any eave or gable rake visible from the beach. It goes dark from May 1 through October 31.
We program the beach zone’s seasonal shutoff when we install it, so it happens automatically every year.
A year on a Gulf-front house
| Period | Street zone | Beach zone |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 1 – Nov 25 | Warm white, fall colors | Warm white |
| Thanksgiving – Jan 1 | Permanent Christmas lights | Permanent Christmas lights |
| January – April | Everyday white, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s, Easter | Same, if you choose |
| May 1 – Oct 31 | Memorial Day, the Fourth, Halloween on the street side | Off |
The good news for beach owners: the whole Christmas season falls outside nesting season, so every side of the house can glow in December.
Check your city’s ordinance
Some beach towns have their own sea turtle lighting ordinances that go further than the state guidance. Before we finalize a design, we check the rules for your address and lay out each zone to match them. Interior lights matter too: the FWC notes that white interior light shining through windows can disorient hatchlings, so window coverings at night help.
Installation on coastal homes
We mount JellyFish track under the soffit along the eaves and up the gable rakes, never on the roof. On the beach, the overhang shields the track from direct rain, sun and much of the salt spray. The lights point straight down, washing the wall instead of shining out. The controller is mounted indoors in the garage and plugged into an existing outlet, which keeps the electronics away from the weather. We test that receptacle and its GFCI protection first, since coastal garages often see corrosion.
Condos and rentals on the beach
Beachfront condos usually have a board and a property manager who answer for turtle compliance across the whole building. We’ll prepare a zone plan showing which runs go dark in season so the board can approve it. Vacation rental owners can keep app access to themselves, so guests can’t change the schedule during nesting season.
Why light matters to hatchlings
The FWC’s guidance exists because artificial light near the beach can disorient nesting females and hatchlings, which are meant to head toward the open water. Light from houses, poles, pools and even windows adds up into a glow that can lead them the wrong way. The FWC’s fixes are simple: turn off what isn’t needed, shield what is, use long-wavelength light where light is required, and keep interior light from spilling out. Scheduling decorative eave lights off for the season is the simplest step on that list.
Other lights on the property
Eave lights are usually only part of a beach home’s lighting. While we’re on site, we can review the rest with you:
- Pool lights: the FWC suggests locking them on amber or red during the season and using plantings to block the glow.
- Balcony and deck lights: shields and long-wavelength bulbs, or certified wildlife fixtures.
- Walkway and stair lights: low, shielded, downward-facing fixtures with amber or red LEDs.
- Motion lights: shielded, on the shortest timer setting.
Our electricians can rewire, replace or add those fixtures as part of the same visit.
Turtles and the holidays you care about
Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Halloween fall inside nesting season. The street zone covers them, and it’s the side your neighbors and trick-or-treaters see anyway. Permanent Christmas lights and any permanent holiday light scene from November through April can use both zones.
What we deliver on a beach job
- A site walk from the street and the sand, marking every eave and gable rake visible from the beach.
- A check of your city’s beach lighting rules for the address.
- A two-zone layout drawing showing which runs go dark May 1 through October 31.
- Installation with the seasonal schedule programmed into the beach zone.
- A walkthrough showing you, or your property manager, how the season schedule works.
Warranty
JellyFish’s 5-year parts warranty covers the lights, controller and power supplies. KWLE’s 2-year workmanship warranty covers our installation, five years with a Member Care Plan.
Beach lighting FAQ
Can I just set the beach side to red in summer? Red is a long-wavelength color, but the FWC asks that decorative lights stay off entirely during the season, so we schedule them off.
What if my house isn’t directly on the beach? The rules are about light visible from the beach. If your eaves can be seen from the sand, plan for them. We’ll check on site.
Can guests override the schedule? Only if they have app access. Owners can keep control themselves and share it only with a trusted property manager.
Do the lights need to come down in the off-season? No. They stay installed and simply don’t run on the beach side during nesting season.
Is KWLE woman-owned? Yes. KWLE is woman-owned, with no certification claimed.
Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Sea Turtles and Lights (myfwc.com): nesting-season end date, the three golden rules, the 560 nm long-wavelength rule, decorative-light and interior-light guidance.
Related: permanent security lighting under the eaves, year-round color ideas and our free design preview. See every city we serve on the JellyFish lighting page, or call (727) 476-7079 for an estimate.