Even though total unitary shipments of 6.3 million central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps in 2001 reflect a 6% decline from the 2000 level, shipments remained at a very high level historically, and continue in that range this year.
Looking at the last five years of unitary shipments, three of those years have reached record levels. (See Figure 1.) And if you go back to 1994, six of the last eight years have been record years.