"For the third year in a row, combined unitary air conditioning and heat pump unit shipments reached their peak in June, indicating that summer is often the time of year when many people face replacement of their indoor comfort systems," said Dave Martz, ARI's vice president of administration and statistics. "We strive to educate consumers to check their systems prior to the cooling season to avoid a system failure when they need it most and when cooling system technicians are overburdened with increased service calls."

In light of last year's record breaking total of 8.6 million units shipped, current industry totals, year-to-date, are just under half way to another record at 4.1 million units. The total, however, is down 2 percent from the first six months of 2005. Looking at last year's trends reveals that the industry ramped up about the same time last year, and never looked back. This was primarily due to the 13 SEER mandate that went into effect January 2006.