Indygal,
We're starting building in Bloomington right now. Good to "meet" you! We're also planning on a whole house fan and would love to know what you decide, if it comes from somewhere other than this thread. I'll look forward to following your process.

We had a whole house fan in our last home which we installed ourself and purchased from HD. Can't remember the brand though. Even though it did a great job of cooling the house at night, it was so noisy that I couldn't sleep while it was on. My recommendation would be to find a fairly quiet one and don't position it near any bedrooms.

We used to live outside Atlanta, GA. Both of our houses had one of those big whole house fans. They were outside our bedroom in both houses and were pretty noisy, but the cool air was worth any noise. It's wonderful to be able to cool the house down to outside temperature in just a few minutes on a cool evening. Those fans just had the metal louvres in the ceiling. In the winter we had to go up in the attic and cover the fans with a quilt. The Tamarack and the Master Flow Tandem fans are very similar. Both are small and have a hinged door on top that closes when not in use. The Tamarack uses a double door the the Master Flow has a single door. Both also use a white grill which will blend into the ceiling better. The Master Flow is also quite a bit less expensive. We can upgrade the insulation in the Tamarack, but I can't find anything online about doing that to the Master Flow. I guess I'll call or email them for more specifics about the insulating properties. We don't want to lose warm air through the fan.

There is a lot of misleading information out there about these products. Whole house fans (known as Whole House Comfort Ventilators) by the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) work great at cooling the house down when it is cooler outside than inside. The traditional whole house fans move an enormous amount of air and create a gentle breeze and a lot of noise! The lower flow fans like the Tamarack or Master Flow move much less air, cooling the house slowly. Fans like the SuperFan and Comfort Stream can draw air from 4 rooms meaning you can close the bedroom doors and still get ventilation. They also exhaust directly to the outside so you don't pressurize the attic. And their air flow is certified by HVI. Be sure that the windows are open when you use any of these products.

Here is a link that might be useful: Comfort Stream information

I have a recommendation for whole-house fans, and that is to go with the ones made by Triangle Engineering of Arkansas (made in the USA!).

These things move more air than any other brand. As an example: the 36" belt-drive model sold at Lowes & Home Depot moves 6,900 CFM on its highest speed. The 36" one that Triangle makes moves 10,600 CFM.

I just put one of these in last week and am so taken with it that I'm evangelizing for Triangle now.

These things are much higher quality than the other brands too -- these are made with very heavy-gauge solid welded steel (as opposed to the thin, flimsy metal - often aluminum - that other brands use). They use a very solid motor made by Emerson, the best of the top three motor-making companies (the other two being Fasco and A.O. Smith). They come pre-framed on a wood frame for installation, AND they have sponge-rubber noise-dampening material between the fan and the frame, so they are much quieter than the other brands. Also, Triangle holds a patent on an automatic belt-tensioning system these things use, so you don't have to worry about getting the tension right when you install the fan (or in the years thereafter as the belt loosens up).

Also, they come in more sizes than the other companies -- from 24" all the way up to 48" blade diameter (which moves a ridiculously whopping amount of air; no one else makes one that big).

They're sold online at Southern Tool amongst other places that ship nationwide, so they're available wherever you live.

Also, Triangle re-brands some of these as a private label for Dayton, which is the "store brand" of Grainger - so if you have a Grainger store near you (check your phone book or their website), you can buy one there. I will say this, though - Grainger/Dayton makes their own shutters, and those shutters are much better than the one Triangle makes. Triangle makes great fans, but crappy shutters. Luckily, they're sold separately -- so buy a Triangle fan and Dayton shutters; money can't buy better products.

They also re-brand some for a company out in San Francisco called "Fanman" (a/k/a "Delta Breeze").

A word to the wise -- these fans move a lot of air, so make sure to install at least the recommended minimum amount of attic exhaust space (gable vents, soffit vents, roof vents, some combination thereof, whatever works for you) - if you don't have enough, the fan will operate at reduced capacity, and there will be a backpressure which will cause the shutters to rattle when the fan is in operation (any time you hear whole-house fan shutters rattling, you know there isn't enough exhaust space). Oh, and one other thing -- only buy a belt-drive whole-house fan, don't EVER buy a direct-drive model...the direct-drive models are at least five times louder, they sound like standing on an airport runway next to an old prop plane getting ready to take off.

Several of the dedicated whole-house fan installing companies have chosen to use Triangle fans; that should tell you something. These companies want satisfied customers, so they use Triangle and only Triangle.

Refer to http://www.trianglefans.com/wholehouse.html for more info

Here is a link that might be useful: Triangle whole-house fans