Growth of the heating and cooling industry depends on a steady economy and a hot summer.
The HVAC forecast for 2001 is "iffy" and it's likely that the market will not be as good as it was last year. On the plus side, as Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute Vice President Ed Dooley pointed out, we are in a full employment economy and the Federal Reserve will probably drop interest rates early in the year. On the negative side, the National Association of Home Builders is forecasting a 5.9% drop in housing starts in 2001.
It would take a lot of retrofit and remodeling work to make up for that, and that level of economic activity is unlikely.