ARLINGTON, Va. - Combined U.S. factory shipments of 619,974 air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for August 2003 were up 3 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year, according to statistics from the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI).

Heat pump shipments of 142,188 were also up 16 percent compared to last August. Shipments for the first eight months of 2003 are down 1 percent compared to last year.