Energy Usage, Conservation and Weather Stripping - Best fan setup for cathedral ceiling

I have an 18' cathedral ceiling in the living room in the center of the house. Even though we're in the Texas heat, our highest electric bill every year is in February. All the heat sits at the peak. Our current ceiling fan is mounted at 9' and works OK in the summer, but reversing it in the winter doesn't help much for 2 reasons, I believe. First, I think it's too far from the ceiling to push the air up, then down the walls to set up circulation and second, turning up the fan high enough to try and circulate creates a breeze for us sitting below it and seems to make it colder.

I have an idea that running a horizontal shaft along the peak with fan blades that rotate in the vertical plane (like some models from fanimation) would create the circulation I need down one wall, across the floor, up the opposite wall, and back to the fan. I just don't want to spend more than $5k on one of those fans if my theory is way off base. I might try and build a mockup myself to test it. :confused: Does this make sense to anyone, or should I go another route?

Thanks for any opinions in advance.

Hang a box fan in the peak temporarily to test your theory.