U.S. factory shipments of residential cooling and heating equipment for January 2008 look very similar to the totals for the same month a year ago, with a slight rise reported this year for central air conditioners, air-source heat pumps and gas warm air furnaces, according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI).

  Central Air Conditioners and Air-Source Heat Pumps
Combined U.S. factory shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for January totaled 323,072, a 1% drop compared with January 2007 total shipments. Heat pump shipments for January totaled 125,489, a 7% increase from the same month a year ago.

  Warm Air Furnaces
U.S. factory shipments of gas warm air furnaces rose 1.2% to 171,120, compared with January 2007 totals. Oil warm air furnaces for the same month fell 17.5% to 5,807, compared with January 2007 shipments of this equipment.

  Water Heaters
Residential electric water heater shipments for January totaled 338,758, slightly outpacing residential gas water heater shipments, which totaled 319,747, but shipments for both types of water heaters this year fell about 9% compared with shipments for the same month last year. Commercial gas water heater shipments for January totaled 7,198, a 0.9% drop compared with the same month last year. January commercial electric water heater shipments totaled 5,183, a 5% drop from the same month a year ago.

  Room Heaters
A total of 6,263 vent-free room heaters were shipped in January 2008, a 3.4% drop compared with the same month last year.

  Vent-free Gas Hearth Products
January gas logs and insert product shipments totaled 10,617, a 30% drop compared with the same month last year, while gas stove shipments for the same month jumped 12.4% compared to January 2007. Gas fireplace shipments for January 2008 totaled 3,112, a 1.7% drop compared to the same month last year.