The Building Intelligence Center assists home inspectors, commercial building inspectors, contractors, service technicians, insurance providers, home owners, and property managers in decoding the age of mechanical appliances such as furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps, packaged rooftop units (RTU's), packaged terminal air conditioners (PTAC's), and water heaters.

The age of a furnace, air conditioner, water heater, or boiler can play an important part of upkeep and maintenance, and can help anticipate the likelihood of impending repairs or replacement. Mechanical systems do not have an infinite service life. The industry average service life for most combustion furnaces is 15-20 years; most air conditioners and heat pumps is 10-15 years; and most storage tank type water heaters is 8-12 years. With routine maintenance and servicing, the service life of these systems can often be extended by 5-10 year, or even more!

The date of manufacture for many of these appliances is often encoded within the appliance serial number. The Building Intelligence Center provides the largest resource library with the most comprehensive lists of mechanical appliance brand names with most examples of their various serial number styles and date codes.

Upkeep and professional servicing of the heating and cooling systems and other mechanical systems is a critical part of routine building maintenance. For improved safety and longevity of these systems, the Building Intelligence Center recommends inspections and professional servicing be performed by a qualified inspector and/or service technician/contractor seasonally or annually.

To determine the age of an HVAC system or water heater, begin your research by locating the brand name and serial number on the HVAC system or water heater. Visit the appropriate index page from the menu or buttons above where alphabetized lists of manufacture brand names have been provided. Select the brand name for the particular mechanical system, and then locate the example serial number style that most closely resembles the serial number located on your system. The largest list of examples in the industry will help determine if and where the manufacture date has been coded within the serial number for the unit.

An extended version of how to use our website and other helpful tips can be viewed HERE

We continue to add more brands, more serial number styles, and new resources to the site including an IRC Building Code reference index for commercial property inspectors and home inspectors, small appliance (kitchen) serial number codes, brand histories resource index, home inspector continuing education links, and much more! Some of these new resources are reserved for members who have joined the Building Intelligence Center.

Thank you for visiting and using our resource site! 

Bill W. & John B. & Sean F.

Read more about our history HERE