NOTE: A shipment is defined as when a unit transfers ownership; a consignment is not a transfer of ownership. Industry data is aggregated from the information supplied by AHRI member companies that participate in the statistics program and could be subject to revision. Published year-to-date data is inclusive of all revisions. No other AHRI data (e.g., by state or region) is available to the general public other than that published. AHRI does not conduct any market forecasting and is not qualified to discuss market trends. For previous monthly shipment releases and historical data, please see http://www.ahrinet.org/statistics. 

Residential Storage Water Heaters

U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for December 2018 increased 6.1 percent, to 411,429 units, up from 387,947 units shipped in December 2017. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 4.3 percent in December 2018 to 369,588 units, up from 354,409 units shipped in December 2017. 

Year-to-date U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters increased 3.7 percent, to 4,521,373, compared to 4,359,297 shipped during that same period in 2017. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 2.5 percent year-to-date, to 4,229,912 units, compared to 4,127,302 shipped during the same period in 2017.

Commercial Storage Water Heaters

Commercial gas storage water heater shipments decreased 4.4 percent in December 2018, to 8,179 units, down from 8,556 units shipped in December 2017. Commercial electric storage water heater shipments decreased 0.4 percent in December 2018, to 13,359 units, down from 13,416 units shipped in December 2017.

Year-to-date U.S. shipments of commercial gas storage water heaters increased .8 percent, to 94,473 units, compared with 93,677 units shipped during the same period in 2017. Year-to-date commercial electric storage water heater shipments decreased 9.4 percent, to 137,937 units, down from 152,330 units shipped during the same period in 2017.

Warm Air Furnaces

U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces for December 2018 decreased 3.3 percent, to 300,453 units, down from 310,688 units shipped in December 2017. Oil warm air furnace shipments increased 7.5 percent, to 5,087 units in December 2018, up from 4,730 units shipped in December 2017.

Year-to-date U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces increased 9 percent, to 3,416,571 units, compared with 3,133,768 units shipped during the same period in 2017. Year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces increased 3.1 percent, to 38,429 units, compared with 37,268 units shipped during the same period in 2017.

Central Air Conditioners and Air-Source Heat Pumps

U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps totaled 491,986 units in December 2018, up 3.9 percent from 473,496 units shipped in December 2017. U.S. shipments of air conditioners decreased .6 percent, to 292,320 units, down from 293,983 units shipped in December 2017. U.S. shipments of air-source heat pumps increased 11.2 percent, to 199,666 units, up from 179,513 units shipped in December 2017. 

Year-to-date combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps increased 6.9 percent, to 8,340,262, up from 7,805,529 units shipped in December 2017. Year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners increased 4.1 percent, to 5,399,760 units, up from 5,185,747 units shipped during the same period in 2017. The year-to-date total for heat pump shipments increased 12.2 percent, to 2,940,502, up from 2,619,782 units shipped during the same period in 2017.