ATLANTA — Fujitsu General America Inc. has gone from 300 to over 3,000 SKUs in its offerings on the unitary product ducted line in approximately one year.

“We have a complete offering of residential and commercial products up to 25 tons, including some of our residential split products, which have inverter-driven compressors that complement our Halcyon ductless mini split product offering,” said Brian Michael, director of unitary products business, Fujitsu General America Inc. “The one message we at Fujitsu want contractors to know is, technician training is important in the success of our product, whether it’s our VRF product, our ductless product, or our new unitary product offering. Training is an area where we have a lot of focus in our company, and we have a lot of technical resource support on that side as well as marketing support to help contractors get the brand out in the marketplace.”

In the residential product sector of the unitary line, Fujitsu has five air conditioners, two heat pumps, seven ultra-high-efficiency gas furnaces, two high-efficiency gas furnaces, five standard-efficiency gas furnaces, five air handlers, and an indoor cased aluminum coil product. On the commercial side, there are nine package gas electric models, nine package air conditioners, four package heat pumps, one package dual fuel, one split air conditioner, one split heat pump, and three split air handlers.

In the VRF market, Fujitsu introduced its Airstage™ J-IIIL series. According to Erin Mezle, director of marketing, Fujitsu, this unit is the big sister or big brother of the current Airstage line. It is a three-phase unit that comes in 6-, 8-, and 10-ton capacities — all three of which share the same footprint, which is smaller than the current Airstage models. It’s narrower and can be installed in more diverse spaces. When using the company’s 4,000 Btu heads and the 10-ton outdoor unit, contractors can connect up to 30 indoor units to the one outdoor unit.

Fujitsu also highlighted its Circular Flow Cassette, which addresses the direction in which the air flows from the unit.

“Instead of air coming from four ways — each from one side of the square — the air still comes from those sides, but it also comes from the corners as well on this model,” said Mezle. “It’s basically 360-degree heating and cooling, and it more evenly distributes the air, allowing for a more comfortable and evenly spread room temperature.”

Besides its ducted residential line, there was also buzz about the free FGLair app and its capabilities for the homeowner. The user-friendly interface works on a smartphone or tablet and allows users to control power, operation mode, fan speed, louver position, weekly timer, minimum heat, and set temperature control.

“This is how you control our devices that are Wi-Fi compatible,” said Mezle. “All of our Halcyon mini split systems either have built in Wi-Fi or can become Wi-Fi compatible by adding an adapter.”

This Wi-Fi compatibility not only allows use of the app, but is also now compatible with Amazon Alexa as well as Google Assist.

Despite the advancements and changes shown at its booth, more changes are expected to come as the year progresses, according to David Trautman, national account sales manager, Fujitsu.

“The company is watching as legislation brings changes to PSC motors and refrigerants,” he said. “We will likely be phasing out PSC motors this July and working toward refrigerant compliance in the coming years.”

Publication date: 2/18/2019

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