LED Lights for Patio Umbrellas

LED Advantage

• LED lights are intense but use energy efficiently and do not burn hot. That’s important so you can avoid fading or damaging a patio or market umbrella. You can hook lights right up next to the fabric without worrying about overheating, burning or melting the umbrella material.

Strings and Solar Panels

• Use umbrella clips to attach a string of outdoor LED lights to the perimeter of a patio umbrella. These lights are available for holiday decorating, and most models need to be attached to a power outlet, so factor that into where you place the umbrella. Save money and go green with LED string lights that come with a solar panel to place in a sunny spot. The lights come on automatically at dusk. A festive alternative is hanging several mason jars tied with ribbons from the ribs of the umbrella near the pole. Inside the glass jars, battery-operated LED lights glow like stars or fireflies above a table and chairs.

Clamp-on Lights

• Instead of a string of lights around the rim of the umbrella, focus light in the center of a patio table with a clamp-on light fixture. The unit snaps onto the pole of the umbrella and will run off batteries or a cord and adapter. There are several small lamps ringing the doughnut-shaped fixture to distribute light evenly around the table or across the surface beneath the umbrella. The unit clicks on and off with a button and can easily be removed when not needed.

Spoke Lights

• Some patio umbrellas come with tiny LED lights built into the spokes. When the umbrella is open and the lights are on, they provide an atmospheric glimmer but not intense light. The drawback to this style is that it typically requires an electric plug-in, and that can limit the placement of the umbrella in the garden, pool patio or yard. It is a pretty effect, especially on umbrellas with tilt poles that allow you to display the starfish of lights at night. More useful are lights designed to attach to the ribs of the umbrella that provide working illumination. These systems come with a power pod that plugs into a power source and have several outlets for attaching other electrical appliances, such as laptops, portable sound systems, coffeemakers, blenders or outdoor cookers.