Is there an aircon function on the heat setting or is it just a cool air setting?

[Cocijo]

For quite a while now I’ve assumed that air gets conditioned when selected, on all heat settings - helping demisting in winter and cooling in summer. i’m beginning to think that when the heat setting is applied the aircon function switches off. On my car you can hear the aircon engage when a cold setting is selected but when on a heat setting, pressing the aircon button seems to make no difference and doesn’t seem to do anything. Changing the heat control from hot to cold seems to engage the aircon function and you can hear it start up. Is it a cool air aircon system only? So that having the ‘cooling’ aircon button engaged when heat is selected does nothing? Would this explain some of the demisting issues people have had? So effectively our cars do not have air conditioning only air cooling.

 

[Mgkev]

Good question @Cocijo. When we picked up our car in January it had a low battery and it was raining. To ensure we got home we only turned the A/C on when the car steamed up.
Another question, what happens when the A/C is off and you turn the temperature down a couple of blue blobs? If blue/cold means no heating you only get ambient air coming in to the car and therefore more blue blobs can’t make it any cooler

 

[Deleted member 2439]

I can’t see the way the system works in the ZS being any different to that in a regular car, it’s just the source of power that’s different.

 

[macd2401]

I'm sure when you hit the demist button on the dash, it fires up the AC, heat, blower, rear screen and mirror heaters.

 

[Kithmo]

I'm sure when you hit the demist button on the dash, it fires up the AC, heat, blower, rear screen and mirror heaters.

I think maybe it remembers whether you had rear screen on or not when you last used/pressed the demist button. Sometimes mine doesn't turn on the rear screen when you press the windscreen demist and sometimes it does.

 

[Tim Green]

It’s an interesting question. As there sounds to be a standard rotating compressor running the aircon, it should be possible to see whether it runs with the heating on. Maybe the air in China seldom needs dehumidifying?

 

[Cbrom01]

For quite a while now I’ve assumed that air gets conditioned when selected, on all heat settings - helping demisting in winter and cooling in summer. i’m beginning to think that when the heat setting is applied the aircon function switches off. On my car you can hear the aircon engage when a cold setting is selected but when on a heat setting, pressing the aircon button seems to make no difference and doesn’t seem to do anything. Changing the heat control from hot to cold seems to engage the aircon function and you can hear it start up. Is it a cool air aircon system only? So that having the ‘cooling’ aircon button engaged when heat is selected does nothing? Would this explain some of the demisting issues people have had? So effectively our cars do not have air conditioning only air cooling.

I’ve done some test on this recently. Yes you are correct. With the cool button switched on, the compressor only seems to run when the temperature is turned to cold. So yes, this would affect demisting. There is a saving grace here though. If you press the windscreen demist button, the compressor does run with heat and fans pointing to the windscreen and this does demist the car very effectively.

 

[SCB86]

I've spoken about that noise before, it's not the air con you're hearing it's the fan heater turning on.
When you increase the temperature and the blue graticules start going white and then red, on the first red graticule you can hear the fan heater turning on.

 

[Cocijo]

I’ve done some test on this recently. Yes you are correct. With the cool button switched on, the compressor only seems to run when the temperature is turned to cold. So yes, this would affect demisting. There is a saving grace here though. If you press the windscreen demist button, the compressor does run with heat and fans pointing to the windscreen and this does demist the car very effectively.

Yes. That’s my understanding. Strange setup i feel. Under normal use with heat turned on the ‘cool’ button effectively does nothing.