ARLINGTON, Va. — According to the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), combined U.S. factory shipments of 678,358 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps for March were up 1 percent compared to shipments from the same month last year.
Heat pump shipments of 148,698 were up 9 percent compared to March 2002, while shipments for the first three months of 2003 are up 2 percent from those of last year.