Hello all, I'm curious to hear how you illuminate your barbecue area, or if you have a 'special place' where you can relax with a nice glass of wine, on a summer evening. What do you use? candles? solar lamps? a wired light installation? I'm asking because i'm doing a research project on next generation garden illumination. I hope some of you are willing to share some experience, future plans or maybe photos. If you have a barbecue area, but don't have any lighting, I'm curious to know why; is it too much of a hassle to install? is it too expensive? are there any other reasons? Thanks for reading my post, I look forward to hear from you
We typically barbeque during the day. But on the rare occasion of firing up the pit at night, we use the smaller on that's near the garage that can be lit up with the typical electric overhead lights. As far as just sitting out and relaxing at night... doesn't happen very often because of pesky bugs. But when we do, we use a combination of citronella candles and electrical lighting. I used to use those tiki torches, but it's been so dry here that I don't dare have any open flames around.
cherylad, thanks for taking the time to reply It seems like you have a pretty good, solid installation. I could imagine the tiki torches gives a great atmosphere, but as you say they are a bit risky. I have noticed that people have very different opinions on 'artificial fire'. Just out of curiosity; how would you feel about an electric tiki torch, that imitates fire?
I dont have a bbq area, as I live in an upstairs apartment, but my Grampa Lucky put up some white and purple christmas lights around the patio/bbq area at his house for my Gramma Katie. Its very lovely, you dont even think about the lights being christmas lights
We don't sit outside at night in this New England garden/yard. Bugs would carry us away. I hear it is different on the west coast.
Roni... I have seen those electric tiki torches but haven't been tempted to buy them. To me there are just "mood setters". The one's I would use would have citronella oil to help keep the bugs away. And like Bip said... Christmas lights or party lights are good mood setters too. But to be able to actually see what and how you're cooking, I'd stay with regular old electric lights.
I keep waiting to see everybody else's reply. Evidently none of us really use the BBQ area, or aren't willing to admit it, as a place to socialize or any other area for such a purpose. By the time dark arrives I am ready for bed. Daylight is all I use for my BBQ area. Any later we would be eaten by the mosquitoes, so we come inside. (and go to bed, so we can get up with the sun.) During the winter we don't BBQ as it's too cold outside and our guest's would prefer to stay warm. Sorry, Ronni, that we don't seem to be much help here.
Hi Carolyn and thanks for joining in Well, its still useful information, that helps me gain empathy and it inspires me to try and find good solutions For example, when talking about bugs, I think many of them are attracted to light, so if I could attract them somewhere else than around the bbq area - that might help a little bit. This is just an idea (and it might be a bad one), but if i could make a bug-attracting-feature light, that you could point on something like a garden sculpture 15 meters away from your guests. It should then keep the majority of bugs away from the bbq area, but at the same time illuminate a nice feature in the garden.. I'm trying to come up with more ideas like this, and your comments are helping me, even though they might seem irrelevant or obvious
Roni88- I have had the impression that mosquitoes find us by perceiving the difference in temperature between our body heat and the surrounding air. They have more trouble finding us when the ambient temp is close to body temp. What offsets that though, is that they pick up on human sweat and body odor (particularly foot odor!). They can also be attracted by perfumes and cologne. I have also read that mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide. As we breathe, we are leaving a trail of signs pointing in our direction. They can also sense movement, and reportedly prefer people who are wearing dark clothes. So...the perfect storm for getting bitten would be to be outside on a damp day (mosquito bodies dry out quickly--they need moisture to survive), which is warm but not overly warm, running around, sweating in dirty socks, not having taken a bath recently, splashing cologne on ourselves, breathing heavily and wearing dark clothes. I doubt though that this posting has been very helpful. Do you know if those mosquito catchers work? Some emit CO2 and others, I think emit some kind of mosquito pheromone.
Yea actually I don't think mosquitoes care about light at all.. and your'e completely right, the mosquitoes are attracted to a range of other things but I just wanted to show Carolyn how I was using peoples comments as inspiration. .. But taking your facts into account, I guess the final solution is to hire someone to not take a shower in a few days, and then have him run around at a distance about 15 meters from your guests I dont know if they work, but I should probably look into it. Thanks for your comment.
Roni88-- Chuckle chuckle. I am glad you were able to take my comment in the sprit in which it was meant! i love the picture of the showerless guy (or gal) running around as mosquito bait.
