Although U.S. factory shipments of residential heating equipment increased by a small percentage in December 2009, YTD numbers have shown an overall drop, according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI).

Residential Water Heaters

Shipments of residential gas water heaters fell from 4,000,593 units in December 2008 to 3,760,657 units in December 2009. During the same time period, the number of shipments of residential electric water heaters dropped 10.4 percent, from 4,189,451 units in December 2008 to 3,751,994 units in December 2009.

Commercial Water Heaters

Year-to-date, U.S. shipments of commercial gas water heaters dropped 14.5 percent, from 88,265 units in December 2008 to 75,487 units in December 2009. During the same time period, the number of U.S. shipments of commercial electric water heaters decreased 19 percent, from 68,686 units in December 2008 to 55,625 units in December 2009.   

Warm Air Furnaces

As for U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces, there was a 4.6 percent drop from 2,279,677 units in December 2008 to 2,174,528 units in December 2009; however, shipments of oil warm air furnaces increased 1.9 percent to 55,619 units in December 2009, up from 54,608 units in the previous year.   

Central Air Conditioners and Air-Source Heat Pumps

Year-to-date, U.S. shipments of heat pumps dropped 12 percent in December 2009 to 1,642,064 units from 1,865,310 units in the previous year. The YTD total of air-conditioner shipments dropped 11.4 percent, to 3,515,648 units, in December 2009 from 3,968,044 units in December 2008.