I made this post on the subreddit and I was told to go here with my questions for more technical answers.  So this is just the copy of what my reddit post.   "What I understand (at least I think I understand) is that temp shift plates interact in 3x3 area, but do not exchange heat with buildings or objects. That they have thermal mass proportional to their specific heat (since they all have the same mass). And the better their conductivity, the faster they are at transferring heat.