The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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32 JULY 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com HVAC/HYDRONICS N E W S AGGRESSIVE FURNACE AND BOILER STANDARDS MOVE FORWARD A s r e p o r t e d o n p r e v i o u s l y , t h e U S Department of Energy is looking to adopt new standards that will significantly tighten the AFUE and energy consump- tion requirements relative to boilers and furnaces, including those that are oil fired. The industry asked for a 120-day extension of the comment process in order to analyze the impact of the standards and provide a cohesive industry response. DOE refused that request and instead set a 30-day exten- sion that will end on July 10. This decision virtually guarantees that any industry response will be after-the-fact, and should revisions be sought they will likely take place through either legislation or lawsuits. The primary associations involved in representing the industry before DOE will be the Oilheat Manufacturers Association; Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute; Petroleum Marketers Association of America and New England fuel Institute. We will cover these events as they play out. AHRI RELEASES JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2015 U.S. HEATING AND COOLING EQUIPMENT SHIPMENT DATA The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute is the trade asso- ciation representing manufacturers of air conditioning, heating and commercial refrigeration equipment. AHRI provides regular reports on the sales of a variety of equipment. Residential Storage Water Heaters— U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for January 2015 increased 11.2%, to 412,410 units, up from 370,850 units shipped in January 2014. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 12.5% in January 2015, to 406,853 units, up from 361,703 units shipped in January 2014. U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for February 2015 increased 5.4%, to 385,946 units, up from 366,057 units shipped in February 2014. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 22.0% in February 2015, to 415,585 units, up from 340,508 units shipped in February 2014. U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for March 2015 increased 12.8%, to 480,619 units, up from 426,072 units shipped in March 2014. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 18.3% in March 2015, to 467,617 units, up from 395,442 units shipped in March 2014. For the year-to-date, U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters increased 10.0%, to 1,278,975, compared to 1,162,979 units shipped during the same period in 2014. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 17.5% year-to-date, to 1,290,055 units, compared to 1,097,653 units shipped dur- ing the same period in 2014. Year-to-date U.S. shipments of com- mercial gas storage water heaters increased 12.6%, to 27,820 units, compared with 24,705 units shipped during the same period in 2014. Year-to-date commercial electric storage water heater shipments increased 19.7% to 21,725 units, up from 18,145 units shipped during the same period in 2014. Warm Air Furnaces—U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces for January 2015 decreased 7.4%, to 194,057 units, down from 209,667 units shipped in January 2014. Oil warm air furnace shipments increased 19.0%, to 2,828 units in January 2015, up from 2,376 units shipped in January 2014. U.S. shipments of gas warm air fur- naces for February 2015 decreased 2.3%, to 177,007 units, down from 181,122 units shipped in February 2014. Oil warm air furnace shipments increased 14.2%, to 2,557 units in February 2015, up from 2,239 units shipped in February 2014. U.S. shipments of gas warm air fur- naces for March 2015 increased 8.5%, to 227,423 units, up from 209,678 units shipped in March 2014. Oil warm air fur- nace shipments increased 7.4%, to 3,189 units in March 2015, up from 2,970 units shipped in March 2014. Year-to-date U.S. shipments of gas warm air furnaces decreased 0.3%, to 598,487 units, compared with 600,467 units shipped during the same period in 2014. Year-to-date U.S. shipments of oil warm air furnaces increased 13.0% to 8,574, compared with 7,585 units shipped during the same period in 2014. Year-to-date combined shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps increased 16.0%, to 1,631,420 units, up from 1,406,017 units shipped in March 2014. Year-to-date shipments of central air conditioners increased 17.1%, to 1,021,179 units, up from 871,826 units shipped during the same period in 2014. The year-to-date total for heat pump ship- ments increased 14.2%, to 610,241 units, up from 534,191 units shipped during the same period in 2014. See the full data on FuelOilNews.com TESTO DONATES BLUETOOTH DIGITAL MANIFOLDS TO HVAC STUDENTS Testo, Inc. helped enhance the edu- cation of HVAC students at North Franklin Education Center in Mahone, N.Y., by donating new Testo 550 Digital Bluetooth Manifolds. The digital manifolds will complement the accredited two year program at NFEC in Northern New York State and will allow the students to learn on real world instruments. Tonny French, HVAC Instructor at NFEC, will now be able to teach using the Testo instruments and is glad to have the reliability of the Testo brand in his lab for the students. "Thank you to Testo for pro- viding the instruments. I have some very happy young students right now," said French. Testo believes in giving back and is happy to help the community through many initiatives. Testo, Inc. develops and manufac- tures handheld test and measurement instrumentation for numerous markets including HVAC/R, emission monitoring, food, pharmaceuticals, energy, life sciences and many other industries. Additionally, Testo is recognized as a leading global manufacturer of portable combustion efficiency and air emission analyzers, tem- perature, pressure, moisture, and thermal imaging instruments.