The Heater Matrix is what you use when you turn on your Car Heater, it uses the heat from your engine to warm your feet up and demist your screen - that's why it never works until your Engine is warmed up.
The Heat Exchanger for your Air Conditioner is basically a Refrigerator for your Car when the weather is hot, it works just like a Radiator for your engine, swapping heat for cold.
The Radiator for your Engine has hot water pumped in at the top and the very thin vanes dissipate the heat with Cold air rushing over it and by the time it's got to the bottom it's rapidly lost about 20-70 degrees Centigrade depending on the outside air temperature and your speed through the air.
Your Air Conditioning requires a Pump (to circulate the Freon Fluid/Gas) driven either by a belt from your Engine, or in some cases an Electric Motor, which of course saps power away from your engine in one way or another, costing you a fuel premium, quite often up to 10% of your normal consumption.
That's why lots of Drivers rarely use it as it costs a fortune in petrol, and I'm one of them, I simply don't use it unless it's one of those days where the temperature is high thirties and making you feel like death.
There you go, you've learned something else.
If you're just learning, go into You Tube and look for "Internal Combustion Engine" (Four stroke Petrol), there are lots of simple diagramatic video's on there which will describe to you exactly what makes an engine work the way it does.
Once you have that under your belt there are loads of others which show how all sorts of systems work including EGR Valves, Variable Valve Timing, an Alternator, Gearbox, you name it there's an explanation somewhere on the net, and although there are lots of variations between one make of car and another, they all use the same principles.
Have fun educating yourself.
Stew
The Heat Exchanger for your Air Conditioner is basically a Refrigerator for your Car when the weather is hot, it works just like a Radiator for your engine, swapping heat for cold.
The Radiator for your Engine has hot water pumped in at the top and the very thin vanes dissipate the heat with Cold air rushing over it and by the time it's got to the bottom it's rapidly lost about 20-70 degrees Centigrade depending on the outside air temperature and your speed through the air.
Your Air Conditioning requires a Pump (to circulate the Freon Fluid/Gas) driven either by a belt from your Engine, or in some cases an Electric Motor, which of course saps power away from your engine in one way or another, costing you a fuel premium, quite often up to 10% of your normal consumption.
That's why lots of Drivers rarely use it as it costs a fortune in petrol, and I'm one of them, I simply don't use it unless it's one of those days where the temperature is high thirties and making you feel like death.
There you go, you've learned something else.
If you're just learning, go into You Tube and look for "Internal Combustion Engine" (Four stroke Petrol), there are lots of simple diagramatic video's on there which will describe to you exactly what makes an engine work the way it does.
Once you have that under your belt there are loads of others which show how all sorts of systems work including EGR Valves, Variable Valve Timing, an Alternator, Gearbox, you name it there's an explanation somewhere on the net, and although there are lots of variations between one make of car and another, they all use the same principles.
Have fun educating yourself.
Stew