Brrr.. it's cold in here, there must be some Toros in the atmosphere! That movie rocks. Anyways, it is really cold in Atlanta right now and I have been using the heck out of my car heater these last few days. I don't know where the heat comes from, but I'm glad it's there.
So Ben, how does the car heater work?
When your car runs, the engine generates a tremendous amount of heat, due to the thousands of small gasoline explosions that occur each minute. To keep the engine block from literally melting, there is a coolant fluid that is circulated throughout the engine and then through a radiator which allows the fluid to transfer its heat to the air before going back through the engine.
When the engine warms up enough (usually to the point where the coolant fluid is at about 180 degrees F) then a thermostat opens up and allows the coolant fluid to also flow through a second, smaller radiator that is usually tucked in behind your dashboard. When you turn the heat on the air blows over this smaller radiator and that's what brings the heat into the passenger cabin. (yay!)
Some cars cant use this arrangement, like the old VW Beetle where the engine was in the back as well as "electric" cars which don't have heat-generating engines, so they rely on simple straightforward electric heaters.
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