Should Dave Get a Bigger Lab?

[AF6LJ]

There's your answer.
Why pay for commercial space when you don't need it to be. Don't know about Aus but I'd imagine taxes etc. would also be lower. Only minor concern might be security.

There are local council laws that restrict businesses operating from home. It's not that easy.

Not allowed to use more than 10% of the house:

Under the Building Code of Australia and SEPP, a Home
Occupation, Home Business or Home Industry is not
permitted to exceed 10% of the existing floor area of the
building as this would change the classification of the
building.
Under Clause 2.43 of the SEPP, a Home Occupation, Home
Business or Home Industry is not permitted to include the
manufacture of food products or the undertaking of skin
penetration procedures.

Nor are you allowed to stab yourself with multimeter probes it seems.

Why Not?
In regard to Zoning; I liked living in Houston TX  they had very lax almost nonexistent zoning regulations.
It doesn't get any more American than being free to do with your property as you would.

[Bud]

Is basement space included in the floor area?

[ivan747]

Actually, if I move all the Bunker stuff into a room in this place, and rented the bunker out, and rented out the current lab, this place technically wouldn't actually cost me anything 

But you don't own those, do you? If you do, move the hell outta there.

[mtdoc]

Actually, if I move all the Bunker stuff into a room in this place, and rented the bunker out, and rented out the current lab, this place technically wouldn't actually cost me anything 

But you don't own those, do you? If you do, move the hell outta there.

I believe he does own those.

[ez24]

Said it before, will say it again:
Australia is ridiculously expensive. Sell everything, move to Taiwan/Singapore. You will be able to afford a small mansion with symmetric 100Mbit and top English speaking school for Sagan.

Miserable weather

[LINACboy]

If you want to feel closer to nature you could just get some lab chickens.

+1 

[...]should I get a bigger lab?

Day after moving in:


1 month after moving in:


2 years after moving in:


4 years after moving in:
Should Dave Get a Bigger Lab?


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

[ez24]

Just imagine how much more stuff Dave can get.  I am jealous.  I look forward to the day when the new place is packed.

[ivan747]

Just imagine how much more stuff Dave can get.  I am jealous.  I look forward to the day when the new place is packed.

He must have a bunk bed for visitors. That's mandatory.

[EEVblog]

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

Did you have a point?

[EEVblog]

Is basement space included in the floor area?

What basement space?

[EEVblog]

the question is can you open the windows??

Nope. So no fresh air, unless I left the bottom door down the stairs open that leads to the carpark.

[EEVblog]

But you don't own those, do you? If you do, move the hell outta there.

Yes, I own them. Why would owning them mean I should "move the hell out"?

[DrGeoff]

I like the new space with all the little office rooms. Sagan will need an office soon

[ez24]

the question is can you open the windows??

Nope. So no fresh air, unless I left the bottom door down the stairs open that leads to the carpark.

Bummer - if you are renting it - can you negotiate putting in new windows?  If you make another video - show us the view outside.

[DrGeoff]

the question is can you open the windows??

Nope. So no fresh air, unless I left the bottom door down the stairs open that leads to the carpark.

Fresh air gets pumped in and circulated via the aircon. Provided the filters are clean
If you get the new place (150sqm) maybe you could lease out the old lab space.
I'd keep the bunker as-is. Good for NAS and other onsite backup systems, as well as storage.

[AF6LJ]

the question is can you open the windows??

Nope. So no fresh air, unless I left the bottom door down the stairs open that leads to the carpark.

Bummer..
Fresh Air is sometimes a necessity in order to clear the head.

[Bud]

Is basement space included in the floor area?

What basement space?

You said not allowed to use more than 10% of the house for business. Basement is the floor under the ground floor, don't you guys have basements in houses in Australia? It may or may not be counted as living space, some houses have huge basements that can be finished and used for a Lab.

[pickle9000]

@ Dave

Can you put in a vent? That would be very handy when doing reflow.

[DrGeoff]

Is basement space included in the floor area?

What basement space?

You said not allowed to use more than 10% of the house for business. Basement is the floor under the ground floor, don't you guys have basements in houses in Australia? It may or may not be counted as living space, some houses have huge basements that can be finished and used for a Lab.

It depends on the local council, but in NSW urban residential usually all floor space is counted (including garage) as the total house floor spare area.

Don't try to compare the rules and regulations between states, let alone countries. The red tape will make your head spin!

[EEVblog]

You said not allowed to use more than 10% of the house for business. Basement is the floor under the ground floor, don't you guys have basements in houses in Australia?

No, we don't, it's not a thing here. Very rare in a normal house.

[EEVblog]

If you get the new place (150sqm) maybe you could lease out the old lab space.

Of course I'd have to, it would be very expensive (and pointless) to keep both.

[Red Squirrel]

Bigger is always better, it means room for more stuff as well as more simultaneous projects.    If you go big enough can maybe even get a pcb milling, pick and place machine and reflow oven production line going in there. 

[coppice]

Said it before, will say it again:
Australia is ridiculously expensive. Sell everything, move to Taiwan/Singapore. You will be able to afford a small mansion with symmetric 100Mbit and top English speaking school for Sagan.

Singapore is one of the most expensive places to live in the world, and English standards in Taiwan are poor. Neither suggestion makes a lot of sense.
.

[ez24]

Of course I'd have to, it would be very expensive (and pointless) to keep both.

Expensive - yes
Pointless  - no  (more stuff - you never can have too much stuff)

[Zad]

If you want English speaking, then England's not a bad place. Other than the weather, government, local councils, exchange rate... Yeah I'm not selling this well am I. York (literally 5 mins from the countryside) does have Gigabit connectivity though. 60 mins flight from mainland Europe and 8 hours from East coast USA. Not going to happen though is it, roots go down a long way.

Its a shame the office in that video isn't for sale, because as it stands at the moment, it is divided into rooms which are not much more than a couple of cubicle spaces each. I'm not one for all this Feng Shui claptrap, but it doesn't "flow" well and they don't feel that usable. The rooms with windows in look pretty pokey too, smaller than the existing lab. It needs some of those walls removing.

I don't think you need much more space than you have at the moment, once all the crap has been dumped / Ebayed / donated. I know it is so tempting to think it is all going to be useful one day, but I'm sure local schools, amateur radio clubs and so on could make better use out of some of it. I wholeheartedly agree about light and air though. I have turned jobs down because they were in bunker type rooms. It isn't so much the S.A.D. aspect, they just make me feel like a battery hen inside some sort of soulless productivity machine. There comes a time in most of our lives where quality of life starts to be more important than standard of living, and I think now you have 2 adorable ankle-biters then it is the natural time to move on to the next stage.

TL;DR:

* Nothing beats daylight (preferably southern facing) for lighting, albeit highly variable.
* Being in contact with the outside world matters
* You don't need much (any) more space for the video side of things.
* Security issues when people find out where you are, and where $200K of test gear is stored.
* In a larger office, the studio area can be kept separate from the development and admin side of things