If you’re looking for a string light for camping be sure to understand all technical aspects so that you can make an informed choice.
Lumens and Brightness
Like any lighting product designed to be used outdoors, lighting brightness can be essential. If the lighting is too bright, it could cause distraction. If they’re dim, their purpose is a bit lost.
Here’s what you need to know about lumens, a measurement unit for brightness, and how it can be applied to your string light set:
High-brightness. Anything that is over 600 lumens, such as the All-Top LED Camping Light Strip (1,300 lumens) is considered to be quite bright.
Medium. 200-500 lumens is fairly typical for string lights. This includes that of the Barebones Edison String Light, which is a good example of this.
Low. 30 to 100 lumens is usually considered to be below. Although the majority of strings are brighter than that, some, such as those from Eno Twilights LED String Lights can dim to a low level.
Keep in mind that many camping string lights list lumens in terms of total brightness across all bulbs. This means that for example, the Revel Gear 30 lights max out at 350 lumens for 100 lights that is 3.5 lumens for each LED.
String Length
The length of the lighting string is an additional aspect to take into consideration. There’s no ideal length. It’s more likely to be dependent on how big your camping area is as well as the number of campers within your group.
Additionally, the longer the light string is, the more light bulbs it comes with, and the shorter the fewer light bulbs it has.
There are other exceptions. For instance, the Barebones Edison String Light is 10-feet in length but has three light bulbs that are larger. This Coleman LED Lantern String Lights set is 6 feet long, however, it includes 10 lights that are smaller on the string.
If you’re in need of something more you can look for string light sets that are in a strip, such as Tuff’s Stuff Overland Light Strip. Light Strip. It’s 38 feet long and ideal for awnings as well as multiple tents.
Source of Power
There are three major sources of power to consider for your string light set:
USB. A lot of string lights currently available feature the USB connection, however, they don’t have an actual source of power such as Revel’s Revel Gear 30 camping light. It will require a battery pack to power the lights.
Batteries. AA, as well as AAA, will be the most commonly used. The Twilights LED String from Eno lights lasts for 20 hours when using three AAA batteries, so make sure to plan according to your needs.
12 volt. Also called”the car” plug there are some lights available such as The All-Top LED Camping Light Strip that is powered by a 12-volt power source or directly to the battery of your car.
Solar panels, like the one seen in the Mpowerd Luci Solar String Light, can also be a great source of power to ensure that your lighting is on.
Weatherproofing
It’s likely that you’ll be hanging these lights outdoors and you’ll need to ensure that some dust, rain or wind will not damage the string lights.
Thankfully that all of these strings are at minimum IP4 meaning that even rain will not really affect their performance.
If a device is classified as IP68 this means that it’s (essentially) protected from any kind of water and is more than IP4. Certain sets, such as The All-Top LED Camping Light Strip are classified as IP68 and come with an IP65-compatible jacket for more security.
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