This innovation reports the development of an ir learning remote which when attached to occupancy sensors can switch off air conditioners during unoccupied durations and thereby save energy. this ir learning remote acts as an interface between occupancy sensor and ac by transmitting the control signal of occupancy sensor to the ac, by sending appropriate ir command. generally, window and split air conditioners cannot be connected to bms and regular occupancy sensors with relays designed for smaller loads. such acs’ can be controlled by occupancy sensors with the help of the ir remote developed in this work. as this system does not need any wiring and uses ir signals to control ac, the system can also be used for retrofit applications. this paper describes the development of the ir learning remote and the energy savings observed during the experiment. further, energy simulations performed using energyplus show that for a typical office with two hours of unoccupied duration during 8.5 office hours in a day, savings of 20% in air conditioning and 23.5% in lighting can be achieved in composite climate by switching off the ac and lights when the room is unoccupied. the percentage savings in air conditioning energy consumption is less than that of lighting even when both the ac and the lights are switched off for the same duration is due to the fact that ac has to remove the heat that comes into the space during the unoccupied duration. simple pay back of this device is about two months.