Can be made too, don't know if that was an option from new or not, not much hassle if you do want it too, keep thinking about modding ours to do that.. great in the winter, fire it up and go have a cuppa, 10 mins later nice and toasty..
Think their main purpose is to aid warming of the interior and engine during cold times, as the M47 engine amongst others is very efficient and produces little heat, disable it and see how much longer the temp gauge takes to get up when its below freezing... we had a vauxhall at work once that would take over 10 miles to get hot.. not a bad motor but slow at warming your feet!