GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI Wide Ceiling Cassette Heat Pump | 24000 BTU

GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 24,000 BTU Ceiling Cassette Heat Pump: a restaurant dining room with nothing on the wall above the tables

In a neighbourhood restaurant, guests notice whatever is at eye level: the frame on the wall, the daily specials board, and the air conditioner hanging above the booth when there is one. The GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 24,000 BTU takes that last item out of the décor by moving up to the ceiling. It is the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 24,000 BTU under the name its manufacturer has carried since January 1, 2026, GENERAL Inc. The ceiling cassette AUUH24KUAS and the outdoor unit AOUH24KUAS1 are the same, as are the AHRI certificate 215434553, the ENERGY STAR certifications and the warranty: compressor and parts covered for 12 years, labour for 6 years.

A dining room asks three things of its HVAC system: hold comfort through the lunch rush as well as through a quieter dinner service, blow on no one in particular, and fade into the décor. A ceiling cassette answers all three. The owner keeps the walls for booths, mirrors and bottle shelves; the guests, for their part, eat without a jet of cold air on the back of their necks.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

The new name follows the acquisition of Fujitsu General by Paloma Rheem Holdings, the group that has owned Rheem since 1988, in August 2025. Everything else stayed put: same head office and same R&D centre in Kawasaki, Japan, same factories, same AIRSTAGE products sold under the same model numbers, same warranty program. Rheem Canada has handled Canadian sales since February 2026, and we keep sourcing from Groupe Master, our distributor. Our AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer status applies to both versions, which we install and service the same way.

The Fujitsu brand is being phased out; until the transition is over, the same machine may arrive in a box bearing either logo. Rather than take the old page down, we publish both, so that a restaurant owner who knows the Fujitsu name and another who has come across the GENERAL name compare exactly the same thing. Here are the two versions, value by value.

To see the version that still carries the Fujitsu logo: Fujitsu AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 24,000 BTU. Same cassette, same outdoor unit, same certificate.

The cassette principle suits a restaurant dining room well. Air returns at the centre of the grille and is supplied through several sides, along the ceiling, which distributes it toward every table at once instead of concentrating it in front of one wall. With airflow reaching 677 CFM, the CENTAURI mixes the room without creating that table "by the air conditioner" that regulars avoid and staff end up giving to customers in a hurry. We position it from the floor plan, above the centre aisle rather than above a table, and not wherever the line is easiest to run.

Noise matters too, but not the way it does in a bedroom. In the dining room, at 30 to 36 dB(A) depending on fan speed, the indoor unit disappears under the music and the conversation. The outdoor unit, at 52 dB(A), takes more thought: we place it behind the building or on the roof, away from the patio and the neighbours' windows, with enough clearance for it to breathe and for defrost water to drain without forming ice in the walkway.

In summer, a dining room's load comes from everywhere: the storefront window in the sun, the kitchen door swinging open and shut, the guests themselves. Two numbers capture it. The SEER2 of 23.2 measures how economical the cooling is over the whole season, and the EER2 of 13.1 its efficiency on the hottest days, the ones when the room is packed and the mercury is at its peak. Dehumidification of up to 6.1 pints/h removes the moisture that comes in with kitchen steam and on rainy evenings; a drier room feels cooler at the same temperature.

In winter, the front door rules. Every arriving guest lets in a gust of cold air, and the Heat Pump has to make up for it without flagging. NEEP (ashp.neep.org) publishes, for AHRI certificate 215434553, certified values that show how much reserve it has: 17,800 BTU at −8 °C, at the standard test point, with a COP of 3.22, meaning more than three units of heat for every unit of electricity; up to 23,600 BTU at −15 °C, with a COP of 2.12; and still up to 21,000 BTU at −21 °C, the temperature down to which its heating is guaranteed, with a COP of 1.89. The HSPF2 of 11.0 sums up the whole winter: the higher it is, the less heating costs for the same comfort. The model carries ENERGY STAR certification for cold climates.

With its 33.07 in. square cabinet, this cassette belongs to the series' large format: it is larger than a standard 2 ft × 2 ft suspended-ceiling cell. Here is how we carry out the installation in a dining room:

1. The survey: during the visit, we open a tile or a hatch to measure the space above the ceiling, which must accommodate a cabinet 9.69 in. high, and we locate joists, sprinklers and light fixtures.
2. The opening: in a suspended ceiling, we modify the grid around the unit; in drywall, we cut to the cabinet's template and provide access for maintenance.
3. The route: the 1/4 and 1/2 in refrigerant line, the cable and the drain run above the ceiling; the drain flows by gravity when the slope allows it, otherwise through a condensate pump, and that choice, which depends on the route, is written into the quote.
4. Electrical: a dedicated circuit, set up from the MCA value of 16 A and the MOP value of 20 A.
5. Commissioning: pressure test, evacuation, first start-up, airflow check and an explanation of the chosen control method for the manager.

We carry out this work outside service hours, preferably on the day the restaurant is closed, and the room reopens clean, with no construction smell.

A dining room is not a kitchen, but the air there carries odours and fine droplets of grease. The filters are reached through the grille, from a stepladder, and washed between services; the cleaner they stay, the better the cassette holds its airflow and efficiency. We advise against placing it above the pass or too close to the kitchen, where grease would foul the coil much faster. The rest falls to our refrigeration technician during scheduled maintenance visits: cleaning the coil, checking the pan and the drain.

As for the grant, Hydro-Québec's LogisVert program assigns $2,136 to this model in its list published on October 27, 2026. A restaurant does not qualify automatically: it all comes down to the building and the applicant, a review we carry out with you before counting on it in any calculation. If the amount applies, the quote confirms it, and the invoice lists both model numbers along with the AHRI certificate.

The CENTAURI 24,000 BTU is meant for the neighbourhood restaurant, bistro, café or brasserie whose dining room forms a single space, with a ceiling that can take a large-format cassette. It also suits the owner who is replacing ageing wall units and wants to free up the walls along the way. Wi-Fi is available as an option, handy for starting the heat before the morning crew arrives. Capacity is still confirmed on site, though: a heavily glazed room, an open kitchen or a half-buried basement do not call for the same thing, and our estimator runs the numbers before confirming this model.

Your dining room in Chambly, comfortable with nothing on the wall

AirGreen installs the CENTAURI 24,000 BTU in Chambly and throughout the South Shore, and we also cover Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and the North Shore. The quote is free: we come to see the room and the ceiling, we take measurements, and the document you receive specifies the models, the finishing grille, the control method, the route of the line and the solution chosen for the drain.

One call to 514 316-2973 is enough to book the visit, during the quiet mid-afternoon hours if that suits you best.