GENERAL AIRSTAGE Centauri Heat Pump | Ceiling Suspended System | 30,000 BTU

GENERAL AIRSTAGE ABUH30KUAS ceiling-suspended Heat Pump, 30,000 BTU: daycare comfort, installed out of children’s reach

The GENERAL AIRSTAGE Centauri 30,000 BTU system combines the ABUH30KUAS indoor unit and the AOUH30KUAS1 outdoor unit. It is the same pair, down to the last bolt, as the twin Fujitsu AIRSTAGE system. Since January 1, 2026, the manufacturer has been called GENERAL Inc.; this machine’s AHRI certificate, ENERGY STAR certification and warranty have stayed exactly as they were.

In a daycare, the lower part of the walls belongs to the children. That is where you find the cubbies, the drawings, the cushions, the toy bins, and little ones leaning on everything. A floor console quickly becomes something to climb on or poke fingers into. The Centauri unit takes the opposite approach: suspended under the ceiling, in plain view, but out of reach.

The second issue is nap time. When the activity room turns into a dormitory after lunch, the system has to keep heating or cooling without waking anyone. With four fan speeds and a sound level that starts at 32 dB(A), the 30,000 BTU Centauri fits that rhythm.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

GENERAL Inc. is not a new company. It is Fujitsu General Limited under another name, since its purchase in August 2025 by Paloma Rheem Holdings, the group that has owned Rheem since 1988. The company was founded in 1936 and marks the 90th anniversary of its founding in 2026; its head office and its R&D centre both remain in Kawasaki, Japan.

The factories, the AIRSTAGE models and the warranty program stay in place; only the Fujitsu brand is gradually fading out. During this transition, we leave both product pages online. A daycare director comparing quotes should be able to see that both names designate the same unit, and the table below demonstrates it.

The Fujitsu AIRSTAGE version of the 30,000 BTU Centauri shows the same values, if you prefer to consult it under that name.

Let’s start with quiet. The indoor unit runs between 32 and 45 dB(A): the low value corresponds to the lowest fan speed, the one you choose during nap time; the high value to full speed, useful for warming the room after an outing in the snow. Thanks to the fan’s four speeds, plus the Auto position, educators keep a real choice between comfort and discretion.

Outdoors, the compact unit registers 55.0 dB(A) and offers a quiet mode. We try to place it away from the play yard and the nap room windows, set on a base or fixed to a bracket; that location is decided with the director at the quote stage.

On the ceiling, the unit takes up no floor space. Its height is limited to 9.25 in, and it moves 824 CFM above the mats and the little cots. None of its mechanism is at children’s height, and the walls stay free for crafts, cubbies and child-sized furniture.

In winter, a daycare opens early and has to be warm when the first children arrive. The system provides heating down to −21 °C outside, and the brochure says it plainly: no shut-off device is provided for extreme cold. NEEP publishes the following results for AHRI certificate 215434550:

• 21,200 BTU of nominal capacity at −8 °C (COP of 3.08);
• 28,000 BTU in the NEEP test at −15 °C (COP of 2.08);
• 24,000 BTU at −21 °C, the lowest certified test temperature (COP of 1.85).

These three values are not to be compared with one another, since they come from different tests. The manufacturer goes further and announces heat output that can exceed the nominal capacity shown on the label by 20%. Over the whole cold season, HSPF2 stands at 10.5.

In summer, a room full of children coming back from the park warms up fast. In cooling, SEER2 reaches 20.8 and EER2 12.0, and dehumidification removes 8.2 pints of water per hour, which keeps the air drier on heavy July days.

A childcare service also has its own safety requirements. The system’s external inputs and outputs allow an interlock with the fire alarm, a door switch, a humidifier or backup heating, and backup heating logic can be configured. These connections are coordinated with the building’s electrician.

The system ships with no controller by default; you pick one based on who needs to touch it:

• a wired touchscreen wall control (UTY-RNRUZ5, or KAGAMI UTY-RVRU), mounted high enough or in the director’s office;
• a simple wired controller, for a room where only the temperature gets adjusted;
• a UTY-LBTUH wireless remote, with its IR receiver kit (sold separately), stored out of reach;
• the UTY-TFSXJ4 Wi-Fi adapter, which lets you monitor the room from the AIRSTAGE Mobile app;
• a BACnet or Modbus gateway, or a 24 V thermostat interface, if the building already has a management system.

Among the manufacturer’s modes, group control serves daycares with several rooms well, since one controller can then govern several units. Minimum heat keeps the premises tempered on weekends, economy mode reduces consumption when the rooms are empty, and auto restart gets back to work when the power returns. Automatic defrost takes care of the rest.

Maintenance is mostly about the indoor unit’s filters. In a daycare, where dust and fabric fibres build up quickly, regular cleaning makes a real difference, and we show staff how to go about it. The copper of the ProCore coils, highly resistant to corrosion, along with R-32, which cuts GWP (global warming potential) by roughly 68% compared with R-410A, complete the picture; this refrigerant also allows a smaller charge.

For installation, a refrigerant line in 3/8 in and 5/8 in piping, an electrical cable and a drain link the inside to the outside. The manufacturer allows a line of 50 m (164 ft) at most and a level difference of 30 m (98 ft); the factory-charged refrigerant is enough for 20 m (66 ft), which makes it possible to keep the outdoor unit away from the yard. Condensate leaves by gravity, or through a drain pump sold as an option, following the route the quote describes. The dedicated circuit is prepared at 208/230 V for an MCA of 20 A and an MOP of 25 A, and commissioning falls to a refrigeration technician.

On the grant side, the 30,000 BTU Centauri appears on the LogisVert list dated October 27, 2026, for $2,544; it also carries the ENERGY STAR and cold climate designations. Whether it is a home-based daycare or a centre in commercial premises, we check eligibility together when we prepare the quote. The warranty, identical under both names, covers the compressor and parts for 12 years, and labour for 6 years.

This system suits daycares, CPEs, school-based childcare services and activity rooms where children occupy the floor and the walls, and where the ceiling remains the only truly free space.

Daycare in Saint-Lambert (South Shore): request your quote

For a free quote, the number is 514 316-2973. We take into account the daycare’s schedule, the layout of the rooms, the yard and the controls staff will use, to propose an installation of the 30,000 BTU Centauri that respects nap time as much as safety.

As HVAC specialists, we work on the South Shore as on the North Shore, in Longueuil, in Laval and in Montreal, under the GENERAL AIRSTAGE name as under the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE name.