Turning on the heater consume more fuel in winter?

The heater system is the most effective heating device for vehicles in winter, but many people have always had misunderstandings about its use. Here is some knowledge on how to use the heater, hoping to bring some warmth to truck drivers on cold winter days.

1. Where does the heat of warm air come from?

Warm air comes from the reuse of waste heat from the engine. The engine's cooling system uses a small fan to direct heat into the cab during the process of cooling the engine. When the heater is turned off, the fan stops and the hot air outlet is closed, and the heat will dissipate into the atmosphere.

2. Does turning on the heater consume a lot of fuel?

When the heater is turned on, almost no oil is burned. Some users think that turning on the air conditioner in summer consumes a lot of oil, so turning on the heater in winter will also consume oil, but this is not true.

The reason why turning on the air conditioner in summer consumes more fuel is that the cold air is pressurized by the compressor to achieve cooling. When the air conditioner is turned on, the engine drives the compressor through the pulley, which increases the engine load and fuel consumption.

The working principle of the heater is different. It is the cooling system that transfers heat into the car through the blower under the condition of cooling the engine. Turning on the heater while driving is a heat recycling and will not increase fuel consumption.

3. How to quickly increase the temperature inside the vehicle?

Start the engine to preheat first, wait until the water temperature gauge pointer indicates the middle position before turning on the heater, and at the same time, first circulate the air outside for 2-3 minutes to replace the air inside the vehicle, and then switch to internal circulation. 

4. How to use warm air to defog and defrost?

In winter, the air humidity is high and the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the vehicle is large, so the windshield is easy to fog up. When the windshield begins to fog up, you can turn on the warm air to defog it, turn the air conditioning temperature adjustment button to the warm air direction, and turn the air conditioning direction button to the glass air outlet.

At this time, the warm air will blow directly to the windshield, and generally 1-2 minutes will be enough to achieve the purpose. The advantage of doing this is that the glass will not fog up repeatedly, because the warm air will dry the moisture on the glass, and as the temperature of the glass rises, the fog is not easy to condense. 

At the same time, due to the large temperature difference between day and night in winter, a thin layer of frost will form on the vehicle glass, which is not easy to remove. The best way is to turn off the air conditioner ten minutes in advance when the vehicle is about to reach the destination, and then open the vehicle door for one or two minutes after arriving at the destination to make the temperature inside the vehicle basically consistent with the outside world. There will be no frost the next day, and even if there is frost, there will only be a few granular frost spots.

Another way is to cover the windshield with a piece of cloth when parking at night, and then remove the cloth the next day and drive away directly. Otherwise, you can only use a de-icing shovel to scrape the vehicle window clean.