We had a similar need, but only because I did not want the hassle or visibility of cutting into the ceiling to install a whole house fan. what I came up with after much searching has been a PERECT solution for us. It is a window mounted whole house fan. I did not have any thought that it would actually move air in the same quantity as the conventional whole house can. It is MARVELOUS! I am pasting the url for the site from which I ordered ours.It has been two years now and I would never be without it again. They install in any conventional window of reasonable size (see site instructions), and attach only by 4 little screws into the inside of the facing and do not show. They have switches that can be turned to either sucking or blowing so you can vary the pull either way. The window can shut down behind the fan for rain or winter. And it draws air in a major way. We have saved scads on electricity bu using it when the nights are cool enough to leave it on all night and then close up in the day. The AC will not come on for hours or even at all, of course depending on how cool it got and how hot it reaches in the day. We love VERY cool air so can tolerate it getting down to 62 or so at night to keep it from getting very hot the next day. That would all be determined by your own tastes.... They were out of stock when I ordered and so I had to wait a couple of weeks, but the company shipped promptly once they had them in stock. I am so glad we went that route! Check it out. Here is the url: http://www.rewci.com/20wholhouswi.html

The $800 price tag (presumably a reflection of the high-tech improvement over the big-box retailer items) is the barrier for me; if I buy something at Lowe's (for considerably less money, though everybody says the noise is going to be an issue with those brands) I know I could return it; and patching a hole in the ceiling, though a hassle, is do-able. It's the idea of shelling out a good chunk of change for a piece of equipment that might not live up to the manufacturer's claims that holds me back from ordering. I sure don't want to end up with a high-ticket item in my ceiling that fails to deliver, and which consequently I don't use.

There are a number of solutions when it come's to whole house fans. My fav is gable mounted,axial flow if space premits,centrifugal in crowded quarters. In a large floor space such as yours mecanicaly opened shutters in ceiling and mechanicalll closed in oppisite gable are sometimes required.

Check on EBay maybe or your local supply houses? I’d google whole house fan louvers 34x44 that might pull some up Grew up with a fan like this abd occasionally would have to lubricate the louvers to help them open. I believe there was also a spring attached that my dad would have to adjust occasionally