Well, we just had a new green-dot controller installed and so far the thud noises are gone as are the E02 lockouts from failure to ignite. If there is one thing that I've learned about mod cons is that they need an experienced professional to design the system and install it. Might be time to pick up the phone and take out the checkbook.

I am still looking into the issue of my system's efficiency. I was using setback on my thermostats, but have stopped doing that based on what I have heard/read on several online forums and articles. Oddly, I got the following email from Triangle Tube regarding the matter when I emailed them a question about this issue:

Sorry for the delay in responding. The question of night setback does come up. The good news is that you can use night setback thermostats with mod con boilers and you will see some savings. Here is the impact of using night setback.

1) It will take slightly longer to bring the house back up to temp when using outdoor reset as compared to traditional cast iron boilers. This is obviously due to the lower supply temperature that the mod con will usually have. This will especially be true when using radiant flooring.

2) You will lose a small amount of efficiency while bringing the temp back up as the boiler will be running at a higher firing rate. This should be rather small but it will be there in theory.

My advice is that I would use the night setback feature of the thermostat, but recognize that you may need to set the recovery time a little earlier that you may have thought. Anything that can improve fuel efficiency should be tried. Each home is different so we can’t give specific savings amounts, but I would experiment to find the optimum settings for your house.
I'm surprised that TT says to use setback!