Lighting is the highest consumer of electrical energy in office buildings and it is one of the areas that offer many opportunities for improving the energy efficiency thereby reducing the energy consumption. This paper presents control strategy for energy efficient office lighting system design. The energy efficiency of a typical office building lighting system in Dubai is examined in this paper. The impact of use of natural lighting and artificial lighting on the HVAC system is assessed and highlighted. Lighting control algorithm is developed with the ultimate goal of achieving energy efficiency and health aspects of occupants into consideration. It is simulated using control systems simulation software functional explorer (FX) tools and recommendations are forwarded. The proposed control algorithm can be used as a reference to other new buildings to be built in Dubai or Middle East in general. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.