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Spaces & devices

Heat and light only booked desk zones with Envoy

Desk-based zone automation reads tomorrow’s desk bookings from Envoy and works out which parts of the office will be in use. It schedules heating and lighting for those zones through Home Assistant and Philips Hue, while empty zones stay in standby.

An example of how the studio would build it. No live services are connected.

From tomorrow’s desk bookings to heating only what’s needed.

  1. Step 01

    Bookings read

    Each evening, read tomorrow’s desk bookings from Envoy and group them by zone or floor.

  2. Step 02

    Zones decided

    Mark each zone as in use or empty, using a minimum number of bookings and any zones that must always run.

  3. Step 03

    Heating scheduled

    Set Home Assistant to warm the zones in use before the first booking and keep the others at a standby temperature.

  4. Step 04

    Lights prepared

    Leave Philips Hue lights in empty zones off until motion is detected.

  5. Step 05

    Late bookings followed

    If someone books a desk in an empty zone on the day, bring that zone up straight away.

The result

Quiet office days stop costing the same as busy ones.

Empty zones are never switched fully off: they stay at a safe standby temperature, and their lights still respond to motion. Manual controls on site always override the schedule.

Before we connect it.

Where this is useful

Useful for hybrid offices and coworking spaces where attendance varies through the week but the whole building is heated every day. A sensible first version controls the lighting and reports which zones could have stayed in standby, before the heating is connected.

What we need to connect

  1. 01Envoy desk booking data through its API, where your plan includes it, with each desk assigned to a zone.
  2. 02Heating controls that Home Assistant can manage zone by zone, such as smart radiator valves or zoned thermostats, and Philips Hue lights on a Hue Bridge.
  3. 03Standby temperatures, warm-up times, zones that must always run and who can override the schedule.

What needs careful handling

Not everyone books a desk before coming in, so empty zones stay at a temperature that warms quickly and a booking or motion on the day brings them up. Heating systems differ, and some central systems can’t be split into zones without new valves or controls, so the building is surveyed before anything is promised. Booking data shows who is in on which day, so the automation only uses counts per zone and never stores names.

Questions people ask.

Will it work with our landlord’s heating system?

Only if the zones you use can be controlled separately and the landlord agrees to any changes. Where heating is shared or central, lighting alone can be a useful start.

Can it encourage people to sit together?

It can, if you set up desk booking to fill one zone before opening the next. That is a policy choice for the business, and the automation then follows whichever zones are booked.

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