Importance of Soil Properties in EPW Files
When creating EPW files with historical files, are the soil properties in the ground temperatures row of the EPW file used by EnergyPlus? I've noticed that TMY3 files don't always include the density, conductivity or specific heat of the soil - that indicates to me that these properties are not used in simulations, is that correct?
Additionally, the reference on ground temperatures here, indicates that EnergyPlus can calculate the ground temperatures from a full-year weather file anyways - so is the ground temperatures row useful/used at all?
There are other posts on this topic of soil properties in EPW files here, here, and here. Do they answer your questions?
@Aaron Boranian thanks for the additional links - I have not seen a post or documentation that explicitly states if the soil properties are actually used or not. In general I think it would be helpful if the E+ team had a public guide explaining what variables are used in the simulation and what are purely informational