The value of a patio during warm, sunny days can not be overstated, especially if you’re someone who enjoys relaxing with a fresh breeze and a cool beverage in the great outdoors. But once the sun sets, it’s much more difficult to enjoy your patio area. Many people turn to candles, but this light source can attract insects. Candles or other flammable solutions can get smoky and uncomfortable, too. One solution that doesn’t have any of these negatives is to install lighting directly into your patio umbrella.
Patio umbrella lights come in all sorts of varieties, but they all share certain commonalities between them. These devices all make use of clean and efficient electrical energy to produce a great deal of illumination for your backyard. Since they are attached in some way or form to the patio umbrella, this best lit areas are necessarily confined to the space around the umbrella canopy. The quantity of light and how the lighting is setup, though, will vary significantly.
One popular idea for patio umbrella lighting is to attach strings of small bulbs across each of the umbrella ribs. This allows for a great deal of light to shine down directly onto the area around the umbrella. These devices sometimes need to be plugged into a home outlet, which somewhat limits which parts of the patio they can be used for. The benefit to rib based lighting is that the final product looks simply stunning. It really adds a whole lot of splendor to the patio at night experience.
Another option is to simply attach a battery powered device to the base or shaft of the patio umbrella. This is much quicker and easier to install than lighting which needs to run across each rib. Yet as with any battery operated device, this kind of lighting needs a little maintenance to replace batteries every once in a while. You can cut down on the frequency this needs to be done by using LED bulbs instead of electric bulbs. LEDs tend to draw less power.
A third solution is to purchase a solar powered patio umbrella. This design includes a solar panel at the top of the umbrella’s finial which is used to power lighting at night. Natural sunlight recharges a battery during the day so that you can get as much as eight hours of lighting at night. This is a great solution if you plan on using your umbrella for many years. It costs more initially, but you never need to worry about paying for power later.
Whatever you choose to brighten your patio, keep in mind what energy considerations you’ll need. By researching a variety of designs you can make a more informed choice as to what will work best for your tastes and your needs.