in a lot of newer cars they can actually use the A/C to heat and cool the car, rather than using excess engine heat or an electric heater which is especially helpful when it’s cold and you’ve only just started the engine!
I assume you mean EVs with heat pumps? I don’t know of any ICE vehicles that do this, seems inefficient to waste mechanical or electrical energy when you have perfectly good waste heat to use upon reaching operating temperature (though you may need to use an aux heater before reaching that, particularly on diesels)
It’s also an emergency safety heat bleed if your engine is overheating, redirecting some of the heat from that engine block can save your radiator some trouble and keep it going a few more miles
Fun fact (well, I suspect you know this already, but some didn’t, I had discussion with someone arguing with me that this is not true):
AC and a heat pump are basically the same thing, AC is just pumping the heat outside instead of inside.
Also when you say modern cars I am assuming you might be talking about EVs. Using a heat pump requires less energy than using resistive heating so it could be energy saving measure.
ICE cars on the other hand can get the heat from engine “for free” (not really, but since the heat will be produced anyway whether you use it or not, so why not use it?) so a heat pump might make a bit less sense in them.
My car is a diesel so it takes a long time to warm up in the winter. They added an electric auxiliary heater to compensate. The air is really hot within seconds.
in a lot of newer cars they can actually use the A/C to heat and cool the car, rather than using excess engine heat or an electric heater which is especially helpful when it’s cold and you’ve only just started the engine!
I assume you mean EVs with heat pumps? I don’t know of any ICE vehicles that do this, seems inefficient to waste mechanical or electrical energy when you have perfectly good waste heat to use upon reaching operating temperature (though you may need to use an aux heater before reaching that, particularly on diesels)
Lots of new EVs have heat pumps, in cold climates they need it because the car doesn’t generate enough heat just from running.
It’s also an emergency safety heat bleed if your engine is overheating, redirecting some of the heat from that engine block can save your radiator some trouble and keep it going a few more miles
Fun fact (well, I suspect you know this already, but some didn’t, I had discussion with someone arguing with me that this is not true):
AC and a heat pump are basically the same thing, AC is just pumping the heat outside instead of inside.
Also when you say modern cars I am assuming you might be talking about EVs. Using a heat pump requires less energy than using resistive heating so it could be energy saving measure.
ICE cars on the other hand can get the heat from engine “for free” (not really, but since the heat will be produced anyway whether you use it or not, so why not use it?) so a heat pump might make a bit less sense in them.
You still need a heat pump for cooling in ICE cars
True, I mean just for heating using engine is cheaper.
My car is a diesel so it takes a long time to warm up in the winter. They added an electric auxiliary heater to compensate. The air is really hot within seconds.
My car is an EV, so it definitely does this because there’s no excessive engine heat to use.