The Penrith Baptist Church is located at Caddens (Clairmont Meadows), NSW, Australia. The new facility was built in 2014 and includes a café, a number of rooms and a 250-seat auditorium.  It is specifically located in a community location to offer a local feel as opposed to being placed in the centre of town.

In Penrith, the winter temperatures can average as low as 5°C and is recorded to occasionally fall below zero, which would lead to the indoor temperature of the church dropping to unacceptable levels at peak church times. To avoid people feeling cold and uncomfortable, the parish decided to install hydronic underfloor heating in the auditorium.

Devex Systems installed a hydronic system in the topping slab with insulation placed between the structural and topping concrete slabs to ensure faster warm up times and less energy waste. This installation was done at the time of construction to allow for easy connection to the floor heating system.

Hydronic floor heating is a great option for large, open areas and works well under hard floor coverings such as marble, stone, slate, polished concrete and all varieties of tiles. The Baptist Church has a polished concrete floor surface with XPS100 (100mm thick) thermal insulation between the slabs.

In-topping-slab and in-screed hydronic heating involves the laying of extremely durable piping on top of the structural slab. The pipes can be laid in a concrete slab or sand/cement screed bed of at least 50 mm in depth and can be covered by a suitable floor surface. The extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) insulation under the heating pipes ensures that the system will be faster acting than an in slab system. This system radiates heat from the floor upwards creating a comfortable, gently heated environment with no draughts, dust or noise. The heating is controlled using floor sensing thermostats that regulate the hot water to the pipe circuits.

Devex Systems met on site with the Pastor and his wife on a cold winter morning after the system had been installed. The thermostats were controlling the floor surface at 31°C , which is ideal when the auditorium is used on average for 3 hours at a time. Otherwise the floor surface is set a few degrees lower. The Pastor and church goers were very pleased with the comfortable outcome.