GENERAL AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 KPAS R-32 Wall-Mounted Heat Pump | 24,000 BTU | Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, South Shore & North Shore

GENERAL AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 KPAS 24,000 BTU: capacity, airflow and placement of the renamed Fujitsu Wall-Mounted Heat Pump, for an open-plan area on the North Shore

Same indoor unit ASUH24KPAS, same outdoor unit AOUH24KPAS1, same AHRI certificate 215441047, same NEEP-certified values, same warranty: the GENERAL AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 24,000 BTU and the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 24,000 BTU are one and the same wall-mounted heat pump. Fujitsu General Limited took the name GENERAL Inc. on January 1, 2026; the machine itself has not changed by a single screw.

An open-plan area is heated and cooled with a single wall unit on three conditions, and this page takes them in order. You need the capacity, meaning what the unit really delivers when it is −15 °C in Terrebonne or Mirabel; you need the airflow, because a capacity that does not cross the room is useless at the far end of the dining room; and you need the right placement, the one that lets the air stream make the rounds without landing on the sofa. This model has solid figures on the first two points, and our job is to get the third one right.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

In August 2025, Paloma Rheem Holdings, owner of Rheem since 1988, acquired Fujitsu General. On January 1, 2026, Fujitsu General Limited became GENERAL Inc. What builds the machine has not moved: the head office and the research and development centre are still in Kawasaki, Japan, the factories are the same, and the AIRSTAGE products keep their model numbers and their warranty program. The GENERAL name is a trademark in use since 1946; the company, founded in 1936, celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding in 2026. In Canada, sales have gone through Rheem Canada since February 2026; our distributor remains Groupe Master, and AirGreen remains an AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer.

The Fujitsu logo is fading from the equipment with each delivery, which makes the two names coexist for a while. We chose to publish both pages side by side rather than remove one of them: you find the model under the name you know, and you can see in the table that the two columns say the same thing, from the AHRI certificate to the sound level.

For the full comparison, here is the page under the Fujitsu name: Fujitsu AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 KPAS R-32 24,000 BTU, with the same values, line for line.

First condition: capacity. According to the NEEP cold-climate heat pump directory, under AHRI certificate 215441047, this unit delivers 20,000 BTU/h at −15 °C, 83% of its nominal size, with a COP of 2.16: more than two units of heat for every unit of electricity, when a baseboard returns one. At −8 °C, at its certified operating point, it supplies 14,800 BTU/h with a COP of 3.03. For an open-plan area in Terrebonne, that means the heat pump carries the room on its own for almost the entire winter; in Mirabel, where lots are more open and the wind more present, the calculation uses the same figures but with a slightly higher heat loss, and that is what our estimator measures on site. Heating is guaranteed down to −15 °C; below that, your existing heating fills in, and we tell you so as it is.

Second condition: airflow. The indoor unit moves 689 CFM at its maximum speed. That figure is the difference between a wall unit that heats the opposite wall and one that heats the room: at that rate, the warm or cool air is pushed along the ceiling to the far end of the open-plan area, comes down slowly and returns toward the unit. The vertical louvers are motorized and sweep the room from top to bottom automatically; the horizontal direction is set by hand during installation, toward the farthest zone. The indoor sound level runs from 31 dB(A) at minimum speed to 51 dB(A) at full speed; full speed is for bringing the temperature back up, after which the unit slows down and becomes a background sound that conversation covers.

Third condition: placement. This is the part that depends on us, and here are the rules our refrigeration technicians apply in an open-plan area:

• The unit goes on the shortest wall of the room, so that the air stream travels the greatest length, high up and with no beam or light fixture in its path.
• It avoids the kitchen in a straight line: steam and grease from the stove clog the filters, and the range hood creates an opposing draft.
• It does not blow directly onto the sofa or the table; the air passes above heads and comes down farther away.
• It stays clear of the baseboard thermostat, otherwise that thermostat reads the heat pump's warmth and switches the baseboards off too early or too late.
• It sits, if possible, on an exterior wall or near a corner of the house, to shorten the refrigerant line and simplify the drain.

Efficiency and modulation. The HSPF2 of 10.0 expresses efficiency over a full heating season; the higher it is, the less electricity you buy for the same heat. In summer, the SEER2 of 21.5 and the EER2 of 11.7 do the same job in air conditioning, in an open-plan area that stores up the sun through its large windows. Once the room reaches the setpoint, the unit slows down instead of stopping: its certified minimum capacity drops to 2,300 BTU/h at −15 °C and to 4,150 BTU/h at 8 °C, which lets it hold the temperature to the degree in the shoulder seasons, without on-off cycling.

The hook-up, in practice. This 24,000 BTU connects with an insulated copper refrigerant line of 1/4 and 1/2 in, passed through a single hole in the exterior wall and protected by a line cover. It requires a dedicated 208/230 V circuit, with a minimum ampacity of 15 A (MCA 15) and a maximum overcurrent protection of 20 A (MOP 20), run by a licensed electrician; we look at the panel during the visit to see whether there is room left. The outdoor unit, at 55 dB(A), sits on a ground stand or a wall bracket, raised above the snow, on the side opposite the bedroom windows and the neighbour's patio, with the clearance needed for air and defrost water. Condensate drains by gravity to the outside; if the route requires it, a condensate pump is added to the quote. At the end, nitrogen leak test, vacuum, start-up and supply-air temperature readings. Wi-Fi is added as an option if you want to control the unit from your phone.

LogisVert, ENERGY STAR and warranty. The model is ENERGY STAR certified for cold climates (ID 3627259) and listed among the heat pumps eligible for Hydro-Québec's LogisVert program, at $1,776 according to the list of October 27, 2026. Hydro-Québec revises that list; we validate the amount at quote time, and the invoice we give you names both units and the AHRI certificate so that your application goes through the first time. The warranty covers the compressor for 12 years, parts for 12 years and labour for 6 years, and an extension is possible on request.

Maintenance. The indoor unit's filters pull out by hand and rinse under water; in an open-plan area where people cook, the rinsing happens more often, and that is what keeps the airflow at 689 CFM rather than at a fraction of that value. When snow piles up, the outdoor unit must stay clear all the way around. The annual service falls to a refrigeration technician: he checks the R-32 refrigerant charge, cleans the coils, the pan and the drain, and inspects the electrical connections.

Who this model is for. The open-plan area of a home in Terrebonne, Mirabel or elsewhere on the North Shore, living room, kitchen and dining room in one space, where you want a single, grant-eligible wall unit that heats the room down to −15 °C and cools it in summer without the far end of the room staying lukewarm. The family that accepts keeping its baseboards as a backup in deep cold and prefers an ENERGY STAR cold-climate model to an entry-level unit. If the room is L-shaped, if an open staircase swallows the heat toward the upper floor or if you are aiming for complete heating without baseboards, we will propose another configuration after the visit.

Free quote on the North Shore, from Terrebonne to Mirabel

To find out where the unit will go in your home, call 514 316-2973 or request your free quote online: our estimator measures the open-plan area, chooses the wall with you and plans the route of the line and the drain, then gives you a written quote, LogisVert amount verified. We install the GENERAL AIRSTAGE ALTAIR 500 KPAS 24,000 BTU across the North Shore, as well as in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and on the South Shore.

An AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer and RBQ-licensed HVAC contractor, AirGreen installs and services this heat pump under both names, with the same warranty and the same parts. The logo changes; the unit, the placement and the service do not.