Control of pervasive computing environments is a well-known problem. Such management has to tackle issues of heterogeneity, dynamic binding, interoperability, security, and scalability, among others. The approach used in our AutoHAN home automation system is presented here. It employs a high-level rule-based control atop an ontological substrate, interacting with an application-level layer of rules. This design allows formalised representation of a domain, which lends itself to checkability, along with its reliable control. We discuss the implementation and characteristics of our approach.