One of the main things you need to be aware of if you're open at night is noise levels.

Noise levels will depend on what zone your business is in, and what neighbouring or nearby land is zoned as. Some zones may have daytime and night-time levels that reduce the amount of noise allowed after 10pm.

If you are in a commercial zone, your noise cannot exceed 50 dB (Leq) at residential zone boundaries, or 55 dB (Leq) at the boundary of other zones 

Confused by all the dBs and Leqs?

Measuring noise is a bit more difficult than say, temperature as there's a lot of factors that contribute.

50db roughly equates to the noise a group of people would make having a discussion at the measuring point. Remember - at night time there is less noise from the rest of the environment so these conversations are often louder than they appear in the day.

An increase from 50 to 55 dB is roughly a doubling of the noise level. 

Also good to know is the levels listed here are not maximums, the ‘amount’ of noise you can make cannot exceed these levels if measured or averaged over a period of time.