What happens to the 30% to 40% of the installed base, which is still operating on R22 where you can’t change out the outdoor unit with a 410a unit. So I’ve got a lot of questions. I guess I don’t have a lot of answers for you. That’s – but those are things that we’re thinking of, and we’re working with our OEMs and working with the refrigerant manufacturers who try to figure out how all this is going to play out and not only in ‘24, but also in ‘25 when we do the actual rollout.
Nigel Coe: Thanks. Look, you actually have more questions than I did. So – but it sounds like it’s a little bit too early to have a view, but I appreciate the context. Thanks a lot, guys.
Operator: The next question comes from Ryan Merkel with William Blair. Please go ahead.
Al Nahmad: Good morning, Ryan. Good morning.
Ryan Merkel: Hey, morning. Good morning, everyone. Nice quarter. So I wanted to ask about demand trends through the quarter and maybe even through October, just given the fears out there about consumer spending starting to decline. Just update us on what you saw through the quarter and into October?
Al Nahmad: Barry?
Barry Logan: Hi, Ryan, yes, I mean, very consistent, I would say, throughout the quarter and quarter ended. If I looked at September, for example, just to say it that way, it looks like the rest of the quarter, so pretty consistent throughout – October is only a few business days, and it’s our biggest month of the fourth quarter last year. So not quite the same answer, but all of our field checks, talking to our people see a good fourth quarter.
Ryan Merkel: Okay. That’s helpful. And then I had a high-level question, too, that’s probably hard to answer, but we all see the price increases coming 15% to 20%. And then obviously, there is been a lot of price increases on equipment the last few years. How do you guys think about sort of the impact to the consumer. Are they going to be able to afford these systems? Is financing going to need to be a bigger part of the HVAC industry? How much worry do you have that there will be more sort of repair versus replace?
Al Nahmad: That’s an interesting – we think about things like that. As you may or may not know, we now have a financing platform ourselves, and it’s probably – when we speak consider the most user-friendly platform that exists for a customer to find the loan that we want to finance it. So – anyone, do you want to take a shot at a more sophisticated answer?
Paul Johnston: Yes, there is a concern. Is there an elasticity issue here where we’re going to reach a point where a consumer can’t afford it. I don’t – I still feel like this is a necessity of life that people have to have heat have to have cool. Also, we’re seeing a lot more interest, obviously, we really haven’t felt the impact of 25c as far as the tax credits coming into effect for the higher income people. The rebate programs that hopefully will start maybe in the second or third quarter of 2024 should start picking in now support at least with an $8,000 rebate to the medium and low income consumer to be able to replace their unit and their system. But the consumer so far has been fairly resilient as far as taking care of what I would consider to be an absolute need for life, if you will.
Also, we’re starting to see a lot more activity around what utilities are doing, what states are doing in the area of the weatherization programs and that type of thing. So maybe that’s a little bit of pollyanna, but I think going forward, the consumer is going to have to have to figure out which programs work out best for them so that they can be replacement. And with the financing is going to help also.
