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I live on a third floor flat, with a HUGE balcony. The floor space on that balcony must be almost as big as my two-bedroom flat, and can EASILY fit another two, maybe even three bedrooms.
Here’s the dilemma… we’d love to make more use of the place — except there’s no power outlet out there, or even lights (the balcony has no overhanging roof at all). It gets pretty dark out there, so we haven’t really made much use of the space at night which is a shame. At the moment we’ve got a firepit, a heated mushroom, and two fire braziers, which is great on the weekends or when we’re entertaining but really too much of an effort to get started up when it’s just the two of us on a weekday.
We’ve also tried solar garden path lights but they’re just not enough to light up the entire place! I’m also renting so I’m not allowed to do any structural changes. We’ve run extension cords for power before, but it would be cool if any of the Offbeat Homies have got better ideas for lighting up the balcony! -Mrs Bakes
Due to size, you’ll have to get a lot more lights no matter what, which won’t be cheap.
But it’d be a shame not to use the space at night when the weather’s good, so consider it an investment in home entertainment 🙂
Solar powered twinkly lights
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Solar powered twinkly lights have gotten pretty cheap these days, and you could use them to wrap around the balcony railing, or string them along the roofline.
These delicate fairy lights are under $20 and have almost 4k reviews!
If you want to go for a more meaty bulb, these Brightech string lights are great, although they are more expensive.
Solar bulb lights
I like these solar lights in our carbana for general lighting – they’re made for backpacking & are surprisingly powerful for the small size. Three of them fully light our whole backyard with a string of solar twinkle lights & some LED candles for ambiance.
Make sure to place the lights where they’ll do the most good – nearest to seating arrangements, BBQ, tiki bar, whatever you’ll be using & spending time near outside.
You aren’t going to be reading books on the patio, you just need enough light to socialize, eat & drink, & see where you’re going 🙂
What did we miss? Leave a comment!
Solar powered LED lanterns. These are inexpensive and have brightness settings and at max are very bright. You could hang them on latern hanger poles which look very cool and also are inexpensive.
I have a small Christmas tree that comes with pre-lit lights that I want to put out this Christmas on a plot at the cemetery. Does anyone know how I can go about using a portable solar panel that’s also battery operated to connect to my tree. The tree comes with a plug, but I don’t have a clue how to go about it. Also where I can purchase it. I’ve tried looking it up, but to no avail. I would appreciate any ones help. Thank you!