USA – The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) have released the U.S. heating and cooling equipment shipment data for September 2015. The figures released show important fluctuations in shipments compared to September 2014, upsetting a very positive trend in general for 2015.

Today’s figures show that U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for September 2015 decreased by 22.4% to 283,413 units, a significant drop from the 365,132 units that were shipped in September 2014. This trend was confirmed for residential electric storage water heaters, where shipments decreased by 27.5% in September 2015 to 258,593 units, a major decrease on the 356,724 units shipped in September 2014. Despite the setbacks in September, the year-to-date, U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters increased by 3.3% to 3,388,734 units against the 3,279,008 units shipped over the same period in 2014. However, mainly as a consequence of the poor performance in September, residential electric storage water heater shipments decreased by 0.2% for the year-to-date to 3,124,296 units, in comparison with the 3,130,659 units shipped during the same period in 2014.
The shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters also decreased by 5.4% in September 2015 for a total of 7,315 units, down on the 7,729 units shipped in September 2014. Once more the year-to-date shipments show that 2015 has been a generally good year with year-to-date U.S. shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters increasing by 3.9% to 74,162 units, compared with the 71,375 units that were shipped over the same period in 2014.

Conversely, commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased by an impressive 25.6% in September 2015 to 7,609 units, a notable increase in the 6,060 units shipped in September 2014. This strong performance is reflected in the year-to-date commercial electric storage water heater figures, with shipments increasing by 16.3% to 64,513 units, an improvement on the 55,478 units shipped during the same period in 2014.

Meanwhile, U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces for September 2015 were up by 10.9% to 317,741 units, an increase on the 286,429 units shipped in September 2014. Once more this positive trend was confirmed by the year-to-date U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces which increased by 5.8 % to 2,029,999 units, compared to the 1,918,179 units shipped over the same period in 2014.

Similarly, shipments of oil warm air furnaces increased by 1.4% for a total of 4,895 units shipped in September 2015, up from the 4,829 units that were shipped in September 2014. The year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces also posted an increase of 9.7% to 23,996 units, compared with the 21,879 units that had been shipped by the same period in 2014.

The worst figures posted were those concerning U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps, which totalled 488,464 units in September 2015, down 9.5% on the 539,628 units shipped in September 2014. For air conditioners, U.S. shipments dropped by 3.5% to 335,867 units, a decrease on the 348,143 units shipped in September 2014, while U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps decreased by a striking 20.3% to 152,597 units, down on the 191,485 units that were shipped in September 2014.

Despite the travails of September, the year-to-date combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps increased by 1.8%, giving a total of 5,700,792 units, a rise on the 5,599,693 units shipped in September 2014. Breaking this total down, year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners increased 3.0% to 3,824,980 units, up on the 3,713,244 units shipped over the same period in 2014, while the year-to-date total for heat pump shipments decreased by 0.6% to 1,875,812 units, a drop from the 1,886,449 units that were shipped over the same period in 2014.