What good is a patio umbrella when there’s nothing for it to shade you from? It’s not going to shade you from the moon at night, is it?
Rather, you need it to pass the light on if possible when it gets dark around. An even better scenario would be if it could add illumination with its own lighting source.
Few expensive and modern patio umbrellas come with LED light pre-installed. If you have an old one, you could always install aftermarket patio umbrella lights to add illumination.
One might ask, what good is a patio umbrella light? Is it really beneficial?
Apart from satisfying aesthetics purposes, patio umbrella lights could be overwhelming from the functionality aspect as well.
Here’s how:
What are The Benefits of Using Lights in the Patio Umbrella?
1. Illuminate Your Outdoor Living Space
You do not have to spend quality time with your family and friends only in the living room. The patio and backyard could be a great place to have meals together, entertain your guests, and spend time with your family.
But it gets limited to daytime only if there’s no source of illumination when it gets dark. I don’t think you could have dinner outside in the dark, could you?
Carrying a separate light could be inconvenient, won’t look the best, and will also kill space on the dinner table. If the umbrella had its own light, all these problems become irrelevant.
2. Adjustable Lights for Different Purposes
You can adjust the brightness of the LED lights depending on what purpose you’re looking to serve. If the kids are looking to play around, brighten the lights up for their safety.
If you’re looking to enjoy a romantic evening with your spouse, dim the light and enjoy your time.
3. Define the Aesthetics of the Patio
Your patio could look 5 times more attractive after sunset with attractive string lights. The little lights throughout the strip look like stars when they’re dimmed. It’s a wonderful feeling to look at and relax under them.
Apart from looking beautiful themselves, they let your other patio furniture nearby flourish by throwing some dim and dramatic light on them.
Altogether, it helps to define the aesthetic of your patio in the dark.
4. Enables Outdoor Activities
Say you have your friends and relatives come over and you guys are looking to smoke some juicy meat for dinner. Your friends want to chill and play cards while you are preparing the meat for them.
Managing lighting separately for these different tasks could be another task itself. But have a powerful umbrella light, and you can grill nearby while your friends could easily sit on the table, have their beer and enjoy their game of cards.
Similar outdoor activities could be powered by your umbrella lighting.
5. Safety
While you’re not looking to do any outdoor activities, these lights could ensure safety in general. Having a lighting source at your patio means you or the kids won’t tip over accidentally while walking around.
There could be any sharp object or any other dangerous substance that you’re not willing to step over. Having a light source decreases the chance of any such incident happening.
6. Security
Security threat is one of the most common concerns for homeowners. Burglary has been very common in the US and happening every 13 seconds at one part or another.
You want to lighten up the dark nooks and crannies of your home. Having a patio umbrella lighting could be one good start to that.
Guests coming over would also feel more comfortable and secured if you ensure lighting around every corner of your house, the backyard, etc. A patio umbrella light could certainly contribute to that.
7. Increased Curb Appeal
Your patio umbrella light will not only serve you when you own the home but also when you’re looking to sell the place as well. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 49% of potential buyers rate outdoor lighting as a desirable quality for their desired home, while 41% rated that as an essential quality.
That means attractive outdoor lighting could enhance your property value by a good margin. And what is a more attractive outdoor lighting than those shining stars on your patio umbrella?
Since patio umbrella lightings look mesmerizing when done right, they could surely increase the curb appeal and help to enhance the value of your property when you’re looking to sell it.
Umbrella Lighting Opportunities
You can have multiple umbrellas sitting around the house and lighting all of those could be tiresome to some extent, if you’re installing string lights. If you can light them all, that would be great since you’re already aware of the numerous benefits of having light coming out of your umbrella.
But where umbrella lightings are the most beneficial, if you had to pick?
Bar Area
The best time to party and enjoy drinks is with the sun going down. An umbrella light will highly help to set the party mood then offer a clear view of the bar area. There are few LED lights that have RGB capability, meaning you can set it to any color you want, or even a mix of colors.
This could simply set the vibe of the party and bring life.
Spa Area
If you enjoy a spa at night, sit on the sofa under the umbrella and the dim lighting will help you to relax while the illumination will help with the increased visibility of the area for a seamless spa session.
Decks
Umbrella lightings at decks will not only help with the illumination but also set the vibe of your house as it’s seen from outside of your area.
Consider Installing Solar-Powered LEDs
Being aware of so many benefits from simple lights installed on umbrellas, you might be thinking of installing these to your umbrellas too. If you’re installing new LEDs, consider the solar-powered options.
We cannot ignore the changes that took place in the climate and we should consider environmental issues in anything we do from now on if that’s possible.
The solar-powered LEDs could be your one little step towards it. Apart from saving the environment, they’re easier on your pocket too, in terms of maintenance.
These LEDs could be pretty battery consuming and most of them need you to change 4 batteries at once. Doing this on a regular basis might not feel comfortable on your wallet.
The solar-powered LED systems charge the whole day and illuminate the night, the perfect balance. They’re seamless and require almost no maintenance. And they do not lack any feature that a non-solar LED system might have.
So even if they need a little more care and initial investment, they’re completely worth the money considering the zero-maintenance cost afterward and most importantly, their friendliness to the environment.