Home automation networks are good environments for merging sensor networks and consumer electronics technologies. Because sensor nodes operate with limited power based on a battery which cannot be easily replaced, it is very important to reduce the energy consumption of each sensor node. One of the primary mechanisms for achieving low energy operation in energy-constrained wireless sensor networks is the duty cycle operation, but this operation exhibits several disadvantages. In this paper, we propose an unsynchronized duty cycle control scheme. The scheme achieves energy efficiency and congestion avoidance by duty cycle control in sensor-based home automation networks.