Installation of a GREE FreeMatch R32 2-head wall-mounted heat pump (GWHD(18)ND6MO) in Brossard, Longueuil agglomeration

Le barbecue et la thermopompe, sur trois mètres de terrasse

The barbecue and the heat pump, on three metres of terrace In the photo of this project, the outdoor unit is placed on a four-foot aluminum frameBrossardfour feet, in the middle of the terrace rear of a row house of . Around it: a a wooden trellis, two snow shovels, a broom, a storage chest, a patio umbrella stand, a patio chair. no one sets foot. It is the This is not a side yard where

the unit lives there with everything else. One thing is missing from this photo, and that's the one we're looking for always first on this type of terrace:the barbecue . It wasn't not there

This that evening. It will be there in July. the project is a GREE FreeMatch R32 two-head wall-mounted heat pump mounted on aGWHD(18)ND6MO , the smallest

compressor in the range. The house in a row, the two zones and what

is not served Two-storey row house two-storey, central unit, terrace wooden rear area approximately three metres four out of four, enclosed by a trellis. Heating electric bybaseboards , no air duct, no existing system

to recover. Two zones were

• retained: in the 9,000 BTU/h ground floor, for the open area kitchen–dining room–living room that opens onto
• on the terrace. 6,000 BTU/h upstairs, for the primary bedroom, directly

above.Total installed: 15,000 BTU/h , or 83% of the compressor's nominal capacity compressor. For a two- floors, this figure seems impossible. It is not, and the reason comes down to

The walls—we'll get to that. electric baseboards remain in place everywhere : supplemental heating in the unserved rooms. Calculated, and freeze protection two other bedrooms and the basement are not are not served by this system, and this sentence appears in the quote.

The honest cost of the small head, written before signing: the floor the system's modulation range is around of 7,300 BTU/h, and a 6 000 is located below. When the room calls only at night, the whole system works at its minimum and cycle—the system's mechanism modulation floor, like property of the system and not each head is published on our page of Saint-Chrysostome, and the case of a small head placed exactly on this threshold on that of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. We chose this configuration with full knowledge: a head of 9,000 in a room of this size would have oversized, short-cycled, and poorly dried out, which our page Saint-Étienne-de-Beauharnois explains in detail.

The shared wall you removes a wall and gives you half of the load

That is the only reasoning specific to this project, and it runs counter to everything that the series has published so far about party walls.

Our page about the Southwest established the rule is firm: a party wall receives neither drilling nor anchoring nor equipment. It is absolute, and we are not going to revisit it. But it only says half the story, the one about the constraint.

The other half is a advantage, and it is important. A townhouse in a mid-row position central unit has four walls, two of which are party walls. These two walls do not face outside: they face a heated, occupied dwelling maintained at the same temperature as yours. From a load perspective, they lose almost nothing, either in winter or in summer. The envelope area actually exposed to a central unit is roughly half that of of an insulated house of the same area, and it receives no solar radiation direct sunlight on only two façades rather than instead of four.

Concrete consequence: 15,000 BTU/h for these two zones is not undersizing; it is the right figure. The instinct to copy the capacity of an open-plan area onto that of of an insulated house produces here an oversized head that short-cycles and doesn't dry out — the same reasoning than the one we publish on our page of the Cèdres about a finished basement. The load calculation method and the six elements we record during the visit technical details are on our Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles.

The formula we use: the wall that cuts your bill in half is exactly the one you are not allowed to use. A townhouse row is among the most easy to heat in Quebec and among the most difficult to equip.

The the rest of the argument for this model has already been published: the 35.5 kg weight and the 54 dB(A) — the lightest cabinet the lightest and quietest in the range — are covered on our page aboutAhuntsic-Cartierville, and we we are not going to redo them. The honest cost of this the choice is as well: the 18k is the only model in the family with no heating reserve above the nominal capacity (18,100 BTU/h versus 18,000, that is +0.6%), which our page's Baie-D'Urfé details. It is precisely why the baseboards remain, and why the balance point balance is calculated before the control rather than afterward.

The the 10 m factory charge of the 18k is the most tightest in the range, and it is usually its main drawback: our page aboutAhuntsic-Cartierville explains why a few meters of too much represents a percentage important for a charge of only 900 g. Here, the trap does not close. The condenser is on the terrace, at a few steps from the head of the ground floor and directly below that of the upper floor: 4 m and 5 m, for 9 m of developed length, under the factory charge. No gram of R32 was added. The terrace location is what which made the smallest model viable.

What a barbecue actually releases toward a coil

We found none no page, on our site or elsewhere, that seriously addresses of coexistence between a barbecue and an outdoor unit. On a terrace three meters by four, it is yet the first question to address.

A barbecue in operation produces three things, and they do not pose not at all the same problem.

The heat plume is the least serious and most misunderstood issue. A condenser rejects heat; it making it breathe already-hot air raise the condensing pressure and costs capacity. The principle is published on our pages about Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and ofOka : a unit does not breathe the weather station's air, it breathes the air from its square meter. But a barbecue runs for forty minutes, twice a week. This is not a sizing problem, it is a problem of placement : if the plume rises into the intake face with each use, we have built without meaning to, a recirculation loop recirculation. Moving it one meter settles the matter once and for all.

Combustion products are a minor issue outdoors and we we are not going to make a scarecrow out of it. The water vapor from propane or natural-gas combustion propane or natural-gas combustion disperses; the general principle of what a the unit draws in from its neighbors — vents, hoods, chimneys — is treated on our page about Pointe-Claire, with the reminder that in heating mode the drawn-in moisture feeds the icing rather than evaporating.

Grease is the real problem, and it accumulates

The mechanism itself is already published on our site, for a coil indoor : our page on Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka explains how an aerosol of cooking grease cooking passes through the filter, forms film on the fins and traps then everything that passes through, and that of Longueuil applies it to a workshop where the phenomenon occurs every week. We will not rewrite it.

This that has never been treated, it is the same deposit on the coil outdoor — and this is a different case, because the condenser has no filter for above all, that it ventilates constantly and that it is located, on this terrace, at two meters from the source. Three features:

1. The cooking season is also the air-conditioning season. The condenser turns precisely during the months when the grill works; the deposit forms fin pack crossed by a strong airflow, not on a surface at idle.
2. The coil pack loads up from the inside. The front face remains presentable while that the fin depth becomes clogs up, and our page about Montréal-Est also reminds us that soiling and corrosion are two distinct problems that are often confused often.
3. No fault code says “the coil is greasy.” Capacity decreases in steps from one season to the next and the appliance simply works more high in its range—the failure profile quiet refrain that appears throughout our pages.

Two practical consequences that we write in the reconditioning record:

• Hosing down does not recover a greasy coil. Water does not dissolve heat-polymerized grease. The cleaning method for a coil—airflow direction, back-flushing, the six destructive actions—is published on our page about Pierrefonds-Roxboro ; on an appliance that has been cooking, it becomes a technician's job rather than an owner's action.
• Never apply household degreaser to the fins. The degreasers alkalis attack aluminum. We we rarely repair a coil whose fins have corroded; we replace it. replaces it.
• And it must be said frankly: soiling is treated as a maintenance defect, not as a warranty case. This is already our position elsewhere, including on our Beauharnois and Saint-Lazare, and a greasy coil is not exception.

Radiation, cylinder, and the fact that a barbecue rolls

Three material points that have nothing has nothing to do with air.

Radiation. The lid and the grill bowl rise to high temperature. A condenser cabinet contains panels and parts plastics. At close range, a radiation direct and repeated exposure is not harmless these materials, and repeated direct exposure does not leave trace anywhere other than on the plastic itself.

The cylinder. The clearance distances from a cylinder of propane and of its regulator are covered by the manual for the appliance and regulations applicable, not from us. We do not we publish no value: we ask to the customer where the cylinder is stored winter, because the answer is very often “under the patio” or “in the corner, behind the heat pump.”

And above all, a barbecue has wheels. That is what makes it different from a fence or hedge. The clearance approved in June, with the grill stored against the trellis, is not the clearance on July 20 when someone pulled it into the middle of the patio so as not to fill patio door. The position that matters is not the storage position, this is the working position.

The six rules we follow on a shared patio

1. The barbecue is never in the discharge-air path or facing the intake side. If the the two cannot be separated on the terrace, it is the condenser that moves, not the barbecue: a grill is used where people are, a condenser, no.
2. We draw the barbecue's working position on the technical inspection sketch, just like a fence or a screen. A fixed outdoor kitchen, it is treated like a construction.
3. People ask where the cylinder is stored, in summer and winter.
4. No outdoor fireplace, fire pit, or patio heater near the appliance. Embers come out of an open firebox and the panel is partly plastic.
5. Annual coil cleaning is a performance requirement on a cooking terrace, not a supplement—and it is done by a technician.
6. The clearance list we already publish —three metres from a dryer vent dryer, away from range hoods and combustion vents, three feet from electrical panel, twenty-four inches from the Hydro-Québec meter, two metres property lines—is detailed on our page about Montréal-Est. The barbecue is the missing element, and we add it to it we add.

The terrace is a structure, and water passes between the boards

The second half of this file concerns the wooden floor itself. A good part of the question has already been addressed elsewhere on our website, and we we prefer to say it rather than rewriting it:

• load distribution and the concept of point load —four feet concentrate the mass into four points—are on our page about Dollard-des-Ormeaux ;
• the four-legged frame on a surface that is not a foundation, and the appliance losing its level and ceasing of to drain, on that of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce ;
• the load-bearing capacity of a wooden deck that was never designed for this, on that of of Lachine ;
• the aging of the support itself —anti-vibration pads that harden, wooden sleepers that are not permanent, a level that derives—from that of Pierrefonds-Roxboro ;
• and the general trade-off between a ground base and a support on that of Saint-Eustache, to which our page about Rosemère added the zone root-zone as an additional criterion.

What none of these pages covers, that's what a wooden terrace does with water.

What is underneath the terrace receives water all winter

UA terrace is a slatted floor openwork. That is normally its quality: rain passes through it; it is dries quickly, it retains nothing. Under a condenser, this quality becomes a problem in three parts.

The underside receives a concentrated discharge in the same spot all year round. In summer, it is the condensate from the pan is based; in winter, it is the water from defrosting, cycle after cycle. What find underneath—a storage area, a bikes, bags of soil, the joist itself, often the foundation wall foundation or ground immediately against the house — was not designed to receive it. And no one looks at beneath a deck.

The boards deteriorate first. A strip of wood kept damp beneath the unit is where the finish loosens first, then the wood. This is also, incidentally, the board that cannot be restained without move thirty-five kilograms.

The joist beneath this strip is the real issue. A drainage line falling onto the same joist every day for fifteen winters is a starting point for rot — and it is located exactly in the path of the load of the unit. This is the last place where one wants wood softened.

On the ice formed on a surface where people walk, we will say nothing new: our pages of Vaudreuil-sur-le-Lac, of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Dollard-des-Ormeaux address already the question, and the rule "water of September is October's ice" applies on a deck as elsewhere.

The drainage hose or unrestricted drainage: a decision, not an obvious choice

This is the real decision of this work, and it is not trench dug in advance.

Connecting a hose to the base pan and carry it to the edge of the deck solves all three problems above: the water leaves the structure at a chosen point, away from the wall, away of the passage. This is the right answer — eight months a year.

The problem is winter. A hose exposed on an outdoor unit Quebec can freeze. A hose blocked by the ice does not redirect the water toward outside: it keeps it in the pan, where it freezes in turn, and an opening ice in the base pan is a problem of an entirely different order than a board stained. The question of the outlet an exterior drain and the column ice is addressed on our pages about Cèdres.

Our decision, as we record it in the file:

• if a route short, with a clear, continuous slope, and with a free, inspectable outlet it is possible to connect it;
• if the the route is long, flat, or ends in a low spot where water can accumulate and take hold, we leave the drainage unrestricted and we addresses the underside: protection localized treatment of the joist and decking beneath the unit, and clearance for this that is stored underneath;
• in the two cases, we never place a tray or collection pan beneath the unit. Our page onAhuntsic-Cartierville explains why: a flat object beneath an outdoor unit becomes, in February, a column of ice rising toward the frame, without without any error code appearing.

The umbrella, the object no one expects

On a deck, an umbrella is the only object simultaneously tall, heavy at the base and moved daily. Three observations that cost us service callbacks:

• A parasol base is a permanent obstacle once installed. No one moves forty kilograms of concrete to make room to a technician. It is positioned before that the condenser's location be stopped, not afterward.
• A closed parasol stored against the enclosure scratches the panels and if it slips, bends fins. A a flattened fin is not visible from the front and triggers nothing.
• An open parasol toppled by strong winds lands on whatever is downwind.

The general principle—obstruction changes with the seasons, and clearance clearance approved in August is no longer in January—is published on our of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, with the rule that nothing is added around the unit without asking the question.

Snow from a small deck

On a property, the cleared snow has to go somewhere. On a three-by-four-metre deck surrounded by a lattice, there is nowhere instead: it ends up in the only free corner free, and the only free corner is the one where the unit is installed. It is a a design constraint, not a detail maintenance, and it is adjusted according to choosing the location based on depending on where the snow will be pushed snow.

The rest of the rules winter conditions—calculated support height on the actual accumulation, disconnect switch above the snow line, never a tarp complete and never use a shovel on a coil — is published on our Dollard-des-Ormeaux. On this deck, two snow shovels are stored one metre from the unit. That's perfectly well, as long as they remain resting on the lattice rather than on the box.

The day the deck will be rebuilt

A wooden deck is rebuilt much more often than a roof. Our pages of Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles established the principle for a membrane: the unit is lowered again, with refrigerant recovery, storage, reinstallation, and recommissioning in service, and this cost comes back with every renovation.

On a deck, the service life is simply shorter. So we ask the question at the quotation — how old is this deck? — and we record the presence of the unit in the handover file, so that the contractor who rebuilds the decking in eight years—the figure in advance instead of falling on top.

What we agreed on before installing

1. Working position of the barbecue raised and drawn in the sketch, before choosing the the location.
2. Location chosen based on the corner where snow is pushed in winter, not of the free corner in June.
3. Frame resting on sleepers distributed along across the joists, pads anti-vibration pads at both interfaces.
4. Drainage agreed upon and recorded: short route with a steep slope and free end, or free drainage with protection for the decking and the joist.
5. No tray, no tub, no tarp underneath or on top the unit, in any season.
6. No drilling, anchoring, or routing. routing through shared walls.
7. Age of the terrace recorded in the file, and the presence of the unit flagged for future renovation.
8. And the line “what we we do not promise”: the other two bedrooms and the basement are not serve.

The mistakes we we most often correct on a terrace

• Install the barbecue and install the barbecue and the unit back-to-back because it is the only corner that remains.
• Rinse a coil with a hose and grease and conclude that it is clean.
• Use kitchen degreaser on of the aluminum fins.
• Place a platform under the unit to protect the boards.
• Place the frame directly on the decking without distributing the load across the joists.
• Store the propane tank behind the unit because it is the space remained clear.
• Lean a shovel or broom on the discharge side.

Heat pump installation wall-mounted units in Brossard and on the South Shore

Brossard has 91,525 residents in the 2021 census—an increase of 6,8 % since 2016—and approximately 95 000 in 2024, for 45.2 km² and some 37,275 occupied private dwellings. It is a reconstituted city as of January 1, 2006, following the merger of 2002 and the 2004 demerger, and it is part of thethe Longueuil agglomeration, in Montérégie. A significant portion of its housing stock consists of townhouses, semi-detached houses, and condominiums with private terrace or balcony: exactly the type of building where the outdoor unit's location is decided by three square metres of wood flooring.

At AirGreen, we we design, install, and maintain systems HVAC — wall-mounted heat pumps, systems multizone, air conditioners, furnaces and air exchangers—as well as Brossard, in Longueuil, in Saint-Lambert, in Boucherville, to Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, in the entire South Shore, as well as as Montreal, in Laval and on the North Shore project.

For a two-headed heat pump on a a terrace or balcony, our teams measure the actual use of the space before to suggest a location—because on three square metres, it isn't the appliance that decides.