Cooling load is difficult to predict for a radiant system, because the interaction between a building’s thermal mass and radiation heat gain has not been well defined in a zone with a cooling surface. This study aims to reveal the effect of thermal mass in an external wall on the transmission load in a space with an active cooling surface. We investigated the thermal performances in a typical office building under various weather conditions by dynamic simulation with Energy-Plus. It was found that the thermal mass in the inside concrete layer had positives in terms of indoor temperature performance and energy conservation. The peak cooling load of the hydronic system decreases 28% in the proper operating state, taking into account the effect of the thermal mass in an external wall. Compared to the performances in zones with equivalent convective air systems (CASs), the peak cooling load and the accumulated load of the combined system (radiant system coupled by fresh air system) are higher by 9%–11% and 3%–4%, respectively. The effect of thermal mass is evident in a transient season with mild weather, when the relative effects are about 45% and 60%, respectively, for a building with radiant systems and a building with equivalent CASs.

A new low thermal budget processing approach for polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors on 7059 glass is presented. This processing incorporates three unique steps: low temperature crystallization by broad beam tungsten halogen lamps of low temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited a-Si:H, the use of high quality gate oxide magnetron sputter deposited at 400°C, and extremely short time hydrogen passivation using an electron cyclotron resonance source. These TFT's, produced with this processing on glass, were found to have mobilities in the 60 cm²/V·s range. The subthreshold slope of these devices was in the 1 V/decade range, the threshold voltage was around 5 volts and the on/off current ratio was approximately 10⁶.