---
lang: en
title: "Occupancy-based lighting and air-conditioning control"
url: https://nabrio.com/use-cases/occupancy-based-energy-control
canonical: https://nabrio.com/use-cases/occupancy-based-energy-control
updated: 2026-10-27
publisher: Nabrio Co., Ltd. (nabrio.com)
---

# Occupancy-based lighting and air-conditioning control

Nara counts people in each independent zone of a room and switches lights and air-conditioning on or off to match, through smart relays, building automation, or platforms such as Home Assistant over HTTP or MQTT. Empty areas stop using electricity, zone by zone.

- Sectors: [Buildings and security](https://nabrio.com/industries/buildings-security.md), [More sectors](https://nabrio.com/industries/more-sectors.md)
- What it takes: Ready to configure. Works with Nara’s built-in models. You set up the zones, rules and outputs.
- Products: [Nara](https://nabrio.com/nara.md)

## The problem

Lights and air-conditioning run in empty rooms and zones.

## How it works

- **Input:** Cameras over each room
- **Process:** People count per independent zone
- **Action:** Switch lights and air-conditioning on or off, and report energy use

Nara counts people in each zone you draw. When a zone empties, it switches that zone’s lights and air-conditioning off through smart relays, building automation, or a platform such as Home Assistant over HTTP or MQTT, and switches them back on when people return. The same counts give utilisation figures for each room.

## Variations

### Lighting and air-conditioning

People counts per zone switch lights and AC on or off through smart relays, building automation or Home Assistant.

### Space and meeting-room utilisation

People counts and dwell time per room or desk area feed utilisation dashboards, booked-but-empty alerts and space planning.

## What you need

- Cameras covering each room
- Smart relays, building automation or Home Assistant reachable over HTTP or MQTT

## Nara building blocks

- Camera nodes
- People detection per zone
- If
- HTTP and MQTT to relays or building platforms
- Database table
- Dashboard

AI models: [People detection](https://nabrio.com/nara/ai-models.md)

## What it improves

- Electricity used in empty areas
- Zone-by-zone control, not all-or-nothing
- Space utilisation data

## Where it runs

- [Lights and air-conditioning that follow the people in the room](https://nabrio.com/customers/occupancy-lighting-hvac.md) (An office and facility operator)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does it work with Home Assistant?

Yes. Nara works with Home Assistant over HTTP, webhooks or MQTT, and with smart relays and building automation the same way.

### Does any video leave the site?

No. Nara processes video on your own hardware. Data is sent elsewhere only if you build a flow that sends it, for example an alert to your own MQTT broker.

## Related use cases

- [People counting](https://nabrio.com/use-cases/people-counting.md)
- [Intrusion detection](https://nabrio.com/use-cases/intrusion-detection.md)
- [Fire and smoke detection](https://nabrio.com/use-cases/fire-and-smoke-detection.md)

Talk to us about occupancy-based energy control: sales@nabrio.com. [Download Nara](https://nabrio.com/download.md).