eh?
The only thing ECON does is disables the AC compressor (it may also disable recirc, but ive never tried that because its next to useless anyway).
The heating still works perfectly normally, as does the cooling, except it can only cool the car using fresh air from outside, rather than chilled air thats gone thru the AC system. Ie in the middle of summer, then yes, ECON is a bit crap, but no different to any other car without AC. Any other time ours stays on ECON, as i dont see the point wasting petrol to power the compressor and big electric fan, when its 10c outside.