I want to put a ceiling fan in my bedroom, but there is no established
ceiling light so I do not have access to any electrical wires. It
would also be pretty expensive to hire an electrician to run the wires
for me and install the ceiling fan. So I went to search for solar
powered ceiling fans and the results were good. For Example I really
liked this one:  http://www.cetsolar.com/12ceilingfan.htm

But I don't understand the terms of DC voltage and amps. Would I need
to run electrical wires to get this fan to work. Does it work on
batteries? If so, do I need a charger? Is this actually a solar
powered fan?

Hi rexkab-ga,

   The fan that you refer seems to be a DC fan, which could be
run off of an automotive battery, but you do need to charge the
batteries either through an external solar cell/charger, or a
separate battery charger. The Current draw of 1.2 Amps seems
high enough to prevent placing a battery very far from the fan.
Also if you plan to use it occasionally using an Automotive battery,
the following will give you an idea of the runtime you could get
with a fully charged battery:
Fan run time = Battery Ampere Hour/(Fan current * efficiency factor)
For the fan you've mentioned a 12V 10Ah battery would have an efficiency
factor of about 0.4 at full speed, 0.6 at medium speed and around 0.7-0.8 at
low speed. Using a higher Ah battery (say 40Ah) could give you much better
efficiency, but will make installing the battery near the fan almost
impossible(unless you could place the battery above fan in the next floor)
due to increased weight that could attached to ceiling reliably.
In that case, you could use a DC-DC converter(placed close to the fan) and
a higher voltage battery on the floor surface near the fan(with small amount
of wiring).

Installing a Fan using an electrician is much simpler, unless you want a
temporary setup.

Regards
ldavinci-ga

The link you provided shows a ceiling fan that runs on Direct Current
(DC).  It would be appropriate to use it  in a location where AC
(Alternating Current - the normal stuff you find in a house) is not
available.  Boats and RVs come to mind.

Nothing on the page mentions solar power.  I assume that a solar
collector would be an additional item you would have to buy and
install.  You would also have to make sure that the solar collector
could provide 1.2 Amps at 12 Volts.  What if you wanted to run the fan
at night?  You would then need a battery to store the electricity you
collect during the day.  Also the related circuitry to connect the
charger.

Every home is wired differently, but I would suggest that you
investigate both solutions.  Ask a qualified electrican to give you an
estimate.  He (or she) will understand how to get power to your
ceiling (depending on if local codes permit it, you can eliminate a
wall switch and just use the pull chains to control the fan).  You
might be able to run a wiring conduit up the wall and across the
ceiling to the fan, eliminating the need to access the inside of the
wall.

I have the feeling that trying to use DC just because you think it
might be less expensive might be false economy.  In the end it might
be cheaper to do it the right way.