What is the difference between air con and an ordinary heater in a car?

Question

I don't think it can be as simple as air con cool, heater hot because in my old car the heater also blew out cold air if you set it to do so.

And climate control as well, how is that different?

Answer 1

The air conditioner does just that, coditions the air. It doesn't just cool the air, it removes pollutants, and dehydrates the air as well. You mentioned that you can get cool air with the heater as well, by turning the temp down, well you won't get anything cooler than the ambient air temp outside the car by doing that. It should also be noted that if you turn on the defroster to clear your windshield, you are also using some air conditioning in this mode because there is moisture to remove from the interior of the car. It should also be noted that it is a myth that using the air conditioning uses more fuel than having the windows down. It is a proven fact that having the windows down at 60 mph creates more drag on the car and makes the engine work harder using more fuel than having the air conditioning on and the windows up. Remember, when cars are wind tunnel tested, it is done with the windows up.

Answer 2

Ok, there is a huge difference between air con and a traditional heater. There is also climate control to consider.
Air con does exactly waht it says on the tin: It cools the car by using a compressor rather the same as a fridge. When it's cold the cars heater will draw heat from the engine to warm the interior. Climate control on the other hand is effectivly a control unit plugged into the system. You set a temp - say 60 degs and whatever goes on outside the contol unit will heat or cool as necessary...
A traditional unit without any form of air con will only cool the car with air from outside. If the air temp is 98 then the air it blows in will be 98... so it depends on what the temp was outside when you remember being able to cool the car without air con... maybe you had the fan on high, it blowed air into the car making you imagine it was cooler than it was?

Answer 3

A normal car heater blows air into the car via heating elements. When the temperature is turned up, the heating elements heat the air and this results in warm air being blown into the car. When the temperature is set to low, it just blows in the cooler air from the outside.

Air-con has heat exchangers that use coolants to draw heat away from the air. When the temperature is set to low, the air-con blows the air over the heat exchanger and pumps in more coolant to draw more heat away from the air. This results in cooled air being blown into the car.

Climate control has a device that senses the temperature in the car, and has an input that allows you to set what temperature you want the inside of the car to be, and at what humidity level. The device then adjusts the heating/cooling elements and humidifier to achieve the conditions given. Without climate control, you'd have to turn the heating/air-con up or down manually till you feel that the temperature is right. Climate control does this for you to achieve the conditions you tell it to achieve.

Answer 4

An ordinary car heater can blow heated air as well as unheated air and the temperature dial enables you to adjust anywhere between the two. However the temperature of the coldest setting will be determined by the ambient temperature outside of the car.
Air conditioning actually cools the air using the same principle as a refrigerator. This enables it to blow much colder air than a conventional heater.

Answer 5

Also Air con uses a gas which needs to be recharged from time to time and can be costly as where a car heater blows out just air. Also running your air con uses alot more fuel (dont ask me why but it does). Air con is far better in the summer but you pay for the convenience. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

A heater just heats air up by passing it through a small excahnge radiator under your dashboard linked to the engine cooling system, it heats the air to an average level using airflow through the radiator, so it's actual temerature is dependant on the heat of your engine and the ambient air temperature.
Air-con can cool it using refrigeration or heat it to a fairly accurate preset thermostat controlled level once the engine is warmed up. the heating is still as above, hence you dont get instant heat, the cooling pump is powered by the engines rotation, so you can have almost instant cooled air. It is usually thermostaticaly controlled... although on older cars it may be controlled by airflow.

Answer 7

Ordinary heater uses the heat of the engine to warm the interior. Air con is a fridge freezer unit which takes heat away from the interior much like happens in a fridge.

Answer 8

simple :air con makes air from the out side of the car cool but in your old car the cold setting means the coldest it can be is the temp outside. inshort if it is hot out isde the car will not beable to produce cool air without air con which is also dry air[better for clearing windscreens.

Answer 9

The heater is hot...and the air-con is cold!
But seriously, the air-con in cars, is dry air. That's why it clears your windscreen better on cold days - if you use the heater set to demister with the air-con running consecutively

Answer 10

the heater is gonna keep ya warm and the air con blows cool air to keep ya cool :-)