USA – The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) have released the latest figures for US shipments of heating and cooling equipment. The data covers the shipments made during the month of December 2015. The results demonstrate that the market has been slightly unpredictable with no coherent or overriding pattern for either the month or the year itself.

The figures revealed that U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for December 2015 decreased by 14.3% to 381,971 units, down on the 445,720 units shipped in December 2014. Similarly, for the year as a whole, U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters have decreased by 2.2%, with 4,374,199 units shipped in 2015 compared to 4,471,903 units shipped during the same period in 2014.

Equally, the report shows that residential electric storage water heater shipments dropped by 19.4% in December 2015 for a total of 335,687 units, down from 416,557 units shipped in December 2014. Consequently, yearly residential electric storage water heater shipments have also fallen by 5.9% to 4,027,067 units, compared to the 4,227,329 units that were shipped over the same period in 2014.

In contrast, shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters increased by 14.4% in December 2015 to 9,305 units, up from the 8,134 units that were shipped in December 2014. December’s strong performance meant that the year-to-date U.S. shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters increased by 4.1% to 98,095 units, compared with 94,247 units shipped over the same period in 2014.

The performance of commercial electric storage water heaters was equally impressive with shipments up by 36.8% in December 2015 to 8,576 units, a marked increase on the 6,269 units shipped in December 2014. As a result of December’s boost, the year-to-date commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased by 20.1% to 88,251 units, up from the 73,458 units shipped during the corresponding period in 2014.

However, U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces in December 2015 dropped by 4.3% to 254,636 units, down from the 266,087 units that were shipped in December 2014. Despite this slight setback, yearly U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces increased by 2.9%, giving a total of 2,814,203 units shipped, compared with 2,734,713 units shipped during the same period in 2014.

This trend was reversed for oil warm air furnaces, with shipments increasing by 2.0% to 4,197 units in December 2015, up from the 4,114 units shipped in December 2014. December’s data confirmed the greater trend with year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces increasing by 10.0% for a total of 38,181 units, compared with 34,725 units shipped in 2014.

The combined figures for the shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps reached a total of 382,402 units in December 2015, down 17.25% from the 461,835 units that had been shipped in December 2014. December’s downturn in performance was largely responsible for the yearly combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps falling by 0.6% to 6,815,072 units, down from the 6,853,650 units shipped in December 2014.

Breaking these combined figures down, the report reveals that U.S. shipments of air conditioners in December 2015 decreased by 11.9% to 245,322 units, down on the 278,369 units shipped in December 2014, meaning that the year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners increased 1.0% to 4,545,876 units, a slight improvement on the 4,499,660 units shipped over the same period in 2014.

Meanwhile, the U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps dropped by 25.3% for a total of 137,080 units, down from the 183,466 units shipped in December 2014. Consequently, the yearly total for heat pump shipments fell by 3.6% to 2,269,196 units, down from the 2,353,990 units shipped during the corresponding period in 2014.