Abstract: A central controller (FIG. 1B, FIG. 2, FIG. 4) is disclosed to enable home and commercial automation for automatic, remote control of a wide variety of lights, appliances, HVAC (FIG. 3, FIG. 5) and other systems utilizing a wireless distributed network. The central controller preferably employs a standard CPU and embedded operating system software. Graphical (FIG. 2) and audio (FIG. 4) user interfaces can be implemented. Harmonic distortion due to non-linear AC loads (FIG. 8) are mitigated in single-phase circuits through intelligent control of the loads (FIG. 9) and/or through intelligent complementary control of linear loads (FIG. 10).