Heating of hot melt adhesive in a hot melt dispensing system is provided by heaters distributed in a plurality of zones of the system. A controller receives input electric power and distributes that electric power to the heaters on a time sharing basis. The controller delivers power to the heaters as a function of the total current target, a temperature set point, the current draw of each of the heaters, and stored priority criteria such as heating priorities of the zones, a history of on and off periods for each heater, and distance from the temperature set point.