Patent Application
20070204551
The present invention relates generally to gazeboes, and particularly to an illuminated gazebo.
By definition, a gazebo is meant to be a “gazing room”, an isolated structure intended to offer a panoramic view of the surrounding area. A gazebo may be in the form of a small lookout tower or summerhouse with a view, usually in a garden or park, but sometimes on the porch or roof of a house. Outdoor structures for dining and entertainment, or ornamental garden pavilions designed to let in light and air, are also called gazeboes. Throughout the specification and claims herein, the term gazebo encompasses any of the aforementioned or similar structures and is used herein interchangeably with the words belvedere and pavilion.
Lighting for gazeboes generally consists of standard incandescent or fluorescent light fixtures affixed to the underside of the gazebo roof, just as in an ordinary house or shed. Strings of outdoor party lights, such as globe spheres have also been used to decorate and illuminate gazeboes, just as in porches and patios, or party tents.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved gazebo with lighting, such as solar lighting, as described more in detail hereinbelow. The gazebo may be
There is thus provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a structure including a gazebo including a plurality of vertical structural elements and partial walls constructed between adjacent vertical structural elements, and a roof constructed of roof slats that extend from a central hub situated at an apex of the roof, at least one solar powered light attached to the gazebo, and a solar collector and cell assembly for powering the at least one solar powered light.
The solar powered lights may include LED lights, e.g., with changing colors. The solar powered lights may be positioned anywhere in the gazebo, such as along vertical structural elements, partial walls, roof slats or at the hub. The solar collector and cell assembly may be assembled on top of the hub.
An extra battery compartment may be provided for storing therein a dry battery and/or rechargeable battery for powering the solar powered lights. A wind-powered generator may be provided for powering the lights.
The present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:
Reference is now made to
The gazebo 10 may include vertical structural elements 12, such as but not limited to, posts, poles, beams and the like, of any cross-sectional shape and size. The vertical structural elements 12 will be referred to as posts 12. Partial walls 14 may be constructed between adjacent posts 12, comprising rails, pickets, spindles, poles and the like, of any cross-sectional shape and size. Partial walls 14 will also be referred to as vertical rails 14. The vertical rails 14 may be fitted in upper horizontal cross-pieces or handrails 16 and lower cross-pieces 18. Posts 12 may be seated in foot elements 20, or may alternatively be mounted on a deck (not shown). Two adjacent posts 12 may be left without a partial wall 14 therebetween so as to define an opening 22 (
Gazebo 10 may have a roof 24, which may be slanted, pagoda-style or any other style, and may optionally have a cupola or finial at its apex (not shown). In the non-limiting illustrated embodiment, roof 24 is constructed of roof slats 26 that extend from a central hub 28 situated at the apex of roof 24, with roofing material 30 between roof slats 26, such as but not limited to, a soft material, e.g., canvas, or a hard material, e.g., redwood. Gazebo 10 may be installed on any suitable surface, such as but not limited to, concrete, wood flooring, grass, roof, garden, yard, etc.
The building materials for constructing gazebo 10 may be selected from any suitable material, such as but not limited to, plastic, wood, metal or any combination thereof. Posts 12 and rails 14 may be formed, for example without limitation, by injection molding, extrusion, machining, etc. Gazebo 10 may have any shape, such as but not limited to, round, square, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, octagonal, etc.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, gazebo 10 is equipped with one or more solar powered lights 32. A particularly suitable light 32 is a lamp strip assembly described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/084,156, filed Mar. 21, 2005, to the same inventor as the present invention, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Briefly, the lamp strip assembly may include an elongate housing in which one or more lamp sets may be mounted. (“Elongate” means having a length longer than the width, preferably but not necessarily at least twice as long than the width.) Each lamp set includes a lamp and an elongate reflector. The elongate reflector may include a curved reflective portion adapted to reflect light rays from the lamp through a light transmissive element of the elongate housing. The light transmissive element may be transparent or translucent (or anything between), and may have any size and color. The curved reflective portion may be white and concavely curved with respect to lamp.
The solar powered lights 32 may include, without limitation, LEDs or incandescent lights, and may have any size and color. In the case of LEDs, the LEDs may be of any size, mcd rating, and color (e.g., white, red, green, blue, yellow or other non-white colors, or a RGB (red, green, blue) changing LED, or any combination thereof). “White” is defined as the color that has no or little hue, due to the reflection of all or almost all incident light. “White” in the specification and claims encompasses, bright white, “dirty” white, off-white, gray-white, snow white, hard-boiled-egg white and other shades of white. The colors of the lights may be programmed to change at predefined or random intervals, providing stunning lighting effects.
The solar powered lights 32 may be positioned anywhere in the gazebo 10, and at any attitude (vertical, horizontal, angled and any combination thereof). Preferred positions include along (outside, inside or any combination thereof) the poles 12, rails 14, roof slats 26, handrails 16 and lower cross-pieces 18, and any combination thereof. Solar powered lights 34 (
As another option, gazebo 10 may include a fan 40 mounted on the underside of hub 28 (as shown in dashed lines in
As yet another option, gazebo 10 may include a wind-powered generator 42 on top of hub 28 (as shown in dashed lines in
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited by what has been particularly shown and described hereinabove. Rather the scope of the present invention includes both combinations and subcombinations of the features described hereinabove as well as modifications and variations thereof which would occur to a person of skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description and which are not in the prior art.
