Mini Split for Church

http://hpac.com/archive/mini-split-systems-answer-church-s-out-date-heating-and-cooling-system

Our Church has two large Lennox furnaces to heat the sanctuary. They were installed in 85. They're breaking down a lot so we want to replace them and install AC at the same time. Two companies that did estimates said we can't put AC in our sanctuary because we have only one large cold air return in the back of the sanctuary by the door. They said the AC couldn't efficiently remove the heat without having return ducts throughout the sanctuary and putting them in now would be too expensive.

So I was looking at this Church solution which was Mini Splits. They called a Mechanical contractor to do the proposal and install. How would one find a mechanical contractor and what's the odds of finding one as creative of the one they found?

All realistic solutions start with a realistic heat load calculation. Whether there is a suitable ductless solution in your case really depends on someone doing the math.

If there is a Daikin, Mitsubishi, or Fujitsu design center near you, start there. Competent designers will have taken the factory training. Daikin is the worlds largest vendor of variable-refrigerant volume ductless systems for commercial buildings, but the other two have more market penetration in the US.

I guess that was my concern and reason for asking, I want someone who's tied to our best solution and not necessarily a product. In the past I've seen people go through extreme measures to make their product kind of fit just so they can get the sale as opposed to someone saying, "I could install my product but you'd do better off with XXX or YYY or with multiple solutions put together as a harmonious balance.

So what I wanted was someone who could do the heat load calculations and offer a solution that might include for example better windows, weather proofing, using the ducts in the sanctuary with mini splits here and the boiler where it is. I was hoping to find someone who would do what's best for our Church and not someone trying to stick us with one of their companies products.

Is their such a person and how would we find them? What would I be looking for?