I understood the OPs house to be 18kw heat load (hence the 418 boiler)...no real benefit in zoning, as the entire house is probably used throughout the day, except a couple of bedrooms. In reality it is probably 15kw once the radiators output has been taken into consideration, all speculation I know but probably correct
Of course energy consumption is related to usage...so a church hall used once a week should only be heated once a week, so on-off controls is best.
Houses by contrast are occupied for say 18 hours a day... maybe more like 24 hours a day, in such cases yes I do believe matching heat generated to heat lost with compensation controls is more efficient than turning things on and off, and that does mean heating being available to heat (at two different temperatures set back and normal)
There are many reasons for the savings offered by compensation controls... lower flow temperatures, less user interaction, necessary system designs, enhanced thermal inertia of the building all contribute to the savings made...at the end of the day thats what my clients confirm so I know they save money!
The vaillant and viessman weather compensation controllers both work with NO indoor sensing, and don't need it. It is not the same as those that just have an out door sensor and then need indoor sensing..thats why I make the distinction, have a look at viessmann's brochure on the subject
http://www.viessmann.co.uk/etc/medi...e.File.tmp/6pp Viessmann weather comp web.pdf
In both vaillant and viessmans case (200 series only) you should not use on-off controls, with all the others you can....but you are better off with a compensation controller! I think this is an important distinction, not least because of zoning when you need to give two lives to a boiler (which with vaillant can only be done using the vr 61/65 wiring centre
I thought the 400 series came out about 2 years ago....the heat exchanger being used previously on the ecomax....the 600 is about 6 years old...but I would expect more 600s out there...