USA – The AHRI have released the latest data outlining the US shipments of air conditioning and heating units.

U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for May 2016 decreased 13.6 percent to 340,984 units, down from 394,780 units shipped in May 2015. Residential electric storage water heater shipments decreased 5.5 percent in May 2016 to 326,703 units, down from 345,819 units shipped in May 2015.

These latest figures mean that for the year-to-date, U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters decreased 12.2 percent to 1,791,181, compared to 2,040,295 units shipped during the same period in 2015. Residential electric storage water heater shipments decreased 16.3 percent year-to-date to 1,665,930 units, compared to 1,991,150 units shipped during the same period in 2015.

Meanwhile, commercial gas storage water heater shipments increased by 8.3 percent in May 2016 to 8,474 units, up from 7,827 units shipped in May 2015. Commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased 63.4 percent in May 2016 to 11,160 units, up from 6,828 units shipped in May 2015. Consequently, over the course of the first five months of 2016, U.S. shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters have decreased 5.4 percent to 42,925 units, compared with 45,393 units shipped during the same period in 2015. Year-to-date commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased 44.7 percent to 51,078 units, up from 35,289 units shipped during the same period in 2015.

More positive news came in the shape of  gas warm air furnaces whose U.S. shipments increased by 15.6 percent in May 2016 to 211,950 units, up from 183,407 units shipped in May 2015. Oil warm air furnace shipments increased 8.5 percent to 1,594 units in May 2016, up from 1,469 units shipped in May 2015. This increase in shipments over the month of May contributes to the year-to-date U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces increasing by 5.2 percent to 1,014,193 units, compared to the 964,095 units that were shipped over the same period in 2015. However, year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces have shown a corresponding drop in shipments, decreasing by 7.7 percent to 11,050, compared with 11,977 units shipped during the same period in 2015.

Small increases were also recorded for central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps with shipments totaling 748,236 units in May 2016, a 1.5 percent increase on the  737,467 units shipped in May 2015. Breaking that combined total down reveals that U.S. shipments of air conditioners rose by 2.3 percent to 510,552 units, up from the 499,250 units that were shipped in May 2015, while U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps decreased by 0.2 percent to 237,684 units, down from 238,217 units shipped in May 2015.

After the addition of this month’s shipments, the year-to-date combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps have decreased by 2.5 percent to 2,967,102 units, a drop from the 3,042,250 units shipped in May 2015. Once more separating this data into its two constituent parts shows that year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners have decreased by 1.2 percent to 1,952,676 units, down on the 1,976,501 units shipped during the same period in 2015, while the year-to-date total for heat pump shipments have decreased by 4.8 percent to 1,014,426 units, down from the 1,065,749 units shipped during the same period in 2015.