If you’re considering buying outdoor patio lights to spruce up your deck or patio on your home you might be confused by the many different varieties of outdoor lights that are currently available. It’s not like it used to be fifteen years ago when your choice of outdoor lighting was either a spot light or a lamp post. Manufacturers have answered consumers demand for variety by making many different styles and types.

There are two main categories of outside lights that you’ll need to be aware of before you make any decisions: traditional 12 volt lights that you need to plug into an electrical outlet to power them or solar patio lights that are powered by a small solar panel. In the last ten years solar powered lights have improved in quality so that you can find them in just as many styles as traditional lighting options.

A few different types of outdoor patio light are:

Outdoor string lights – Typically, these are small lights (though they do make lantern and globe string lights over ten inches tall that I’ve seen available) that are attached to a strand of electrical wire and are usually spaced eight to twelve inches apart. The strands can be different lengths and are usually six to ten feet long.

Patio umbrella lights – If you have a umbrella and table set, umbrella lights are perfect. They are small string lights that have clips on them so you can attach them to the edge of a patio umbrella (or anything with a small edge they can hold onto).

Rope Lighting – Rope lights are basically string lights that are encased in a flexible tube of plastic. They can be bought in many different lengths and colors and their main advantage is that they are almost water proof and are very durable.