USA – The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) has released the shipment data for January 2016, with the figures showing, in general, a decrease on the shipments recorded for January 2015.

U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for January 2016 totalled 353,708 units, a 14.2% decrease on the 412,410 units that were shipped in January 2015. It was a similar story for residential electric storage water heaters, with shipments decreasing by 21.1% in January 2016 giving a total of 321,065 units shipped, down from the 406,853 units shipped in January 2015.

The trend was maintained for commercial gas storage water heaters with shipments down by 10.8% in January 2016 to 7,125 units, compared to the 7,991 units that had been shipped in January 2015. However, commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased by an impressive 30.3% in January 2016 with 7,196 units shipped in comparison to the 5,524 units shipped in January 2015.

There was more positive news for furnace shipments as U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces for January 2016 increased by 0.7% to 195,348 units, up from the 194,057 units shipped in January 2015. Likewise, oil warm air furnace shipments rose by 18.2% to 3,344 units in January 2016, an increase on the 2,828 units shipped in January 2015.

However, U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps decreased with shipments totalling 424,102 units in January 2016, down 11.6% from the 479,484 units shipped in January 2015. Breaking down this global figure, U.S. shipments of air conditioners decreased by 10.7% to 257,616 units, down on the 288,361 units shipped in January 2015, while U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps decreased by 12.9% to 166,486 units, a drop from the 191,123 units that were shipped in January 2015.