What are the total annual sales -number of units-(in the U.S.)of
oil-filled room heaters? There are quite a few companies around the world that
manufacture them and sell them in the U.S. Some manufacturers are:
Holmes, Lakewood & Delonghie. These heaters may be purchased at Home
Depot, ACE Hardware, Walmart, Lowes, etc. What are the total annual
sales world wide?

Thanks!

Dear stv1-ga,

Thanks for your question.  First, let me request that if any of the
following is unclear or if you require any further research – please
don’t hesitate to ask me for a clarification.

You requested information concerning unit sales of room heaters in the
United States.

According to a special report published by Appliance Manufacturer in
April 2001, the total number of room heaters sold in the U.S. in 1999
was 3,300,000.   This compares to 2,840,000 sold in 1995.  Here is a
breakdown by manufacturer with market share (which could easily be
translated to units – simply multiply the share percentage by the
total number of units sold that year):

                                    1999         1995
            
Holmes (Patton)                      56%          30%
Honeywell/Duracraft                  15%          30%
DeLonghi                              7%            #
Arvin (HeatStream)                    6%          20%
Lakewood                              6%            #
Marvin                                2%            #
Others                                8%          20%

(unfortunately, 1995 data pertains only to the four categories with
actual percentage numbers available, which means DeLonghi, Lakewood
and Marvin are included in the “other” category)

To come up with a more recent statistic, I used the technique of
extrapolation.  From the records at www.census.gov I extracted the US
population for the following years – 1995, 1999, 2001 (2002 data not
available yet, they’re up to July or thereabouts).  They are as
follows:

1995 – 266.28 million
1999 – 279.04 million
2001 – 284.8 million

The population growth rate from 1995 to 1999 was 4.8%, while that from
1999 to 2001 was 2.1%.

Now, from 1995 to 1999, the number of room heaters sold increased by
16.2% (3.3 / 2.84).  The multiplier for this period is 3.375,
calculated as 16.2% divided by 4.8% (the population growth rate).  In
other words, over this period, the number of room heaters sold grew
3.375 times faster than the population as a whole.  Assuming that
there was no significant change in the growth rate of room heater
sales, I applied this multiplier to the population growth rate
recorded from 1999 through 2001.  Multiplying 2.1% by 3.375 yields
7.1%.

A reasonable estimate of the number of room heaters sold in 2001 is
therefore:

3.3 million x 1.071 = 3.53 million or 3,530,000 units.

I hope this response adequately addresses your request.  Please let me
know if you are in need of additional information concerning this
query.

Thanks,
ragingacademic-ga


References:

SPECIAL REPORT: 2001 Market Profile: part 1 of 3, Appliance
Manufacturer, 49 (4): 19, April 2001

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Request for Answer Clarification by stv1-ga on 14 May 2003 15:24 PDT

Hello Ragingacademic!

Well, your answwer is pretty good, however, did you understand that I
wanted only the "oil-filled" type of heaters sold. I assume your
numbers include all room heaters?

Also, can you come up with the GLOBAL sales volume?

Thanks very much!

Steve

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 15 May 2003 16:48 PDT

Steve -

Sorry for the delay in responding to your clarification request.

I did miss the part about "oil-filled" heaters and I therefore must
apologize - let me see what I can do about finding "oil-filled"
specific information, and I will also try and identify global data for
you.

Please allow me a couple of days.

thanks,
ragingacademic

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Request for Answer Clarification by stv1-ga on 16 May 2003 15:38 PDT

Thanks for being so thorough! I can certainly wait.

Best regards,

Steve

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 19 May 2003 22:10 PDT

Steve -

Hi again - just a note to let you know I have been working on this
some more, but have not managed to uncover anything of interest as
yet.  Will keep trying and hope to find something over the next 24
hours so that we can both put this question to rest!!! :-)

thanks,
ragingacademic

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Clarification of Answer by ragingacademic-ga on 20 May 2003 01:51 PDT

Steve - 

I regret not being able to find much for you.
However, you may be able to purchase some inexpensive (relatively
speaking) reports that could furnish some additional useful and
relevant information.

The source for the numbers I provided in my initial response is
Appliance Manufacturer magazine.  Macro results from the same 2001
report are online -

http://www.ammagazine.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2606,24039,00.html

At the bottom of the page, there is a contact through which you will
be able to purchase the full report.  I would call and ask if they
have a finer breakdown for room heaters.

The 2002 market profile is online in .pdf format at - 

http://www.ammagazine.com/FILES/HTML/PDF/0402marketprofile.pdf

...but unfortunately the magazine did not report on room heaters in
2002.

Also, it does not seem that the magazine has published the 2003 survey
as yet, so there's hope there if you can remember to keep tracking
this publication.

As a rule of thumb and based on experience with data from many other
industries, global quantities are usually a little more than double US
quantities (sad but true...).

I'm sorry I could not do better.
If you are not satisfied with my response there is a way to get a
refund - let me know and I'll coordinate it.

thanks,
ragingacademic