Good deal on 18W solar panel

I have been using a 1500 on my whaler for about a year to help my house battery..Cruising world had an article on solar and pds last year. The separate controller has helped me maintain good voltage while on the hook.
 
I'm considering a solar charger for my small boat, has two batteries, house and start.
Would the Sunsei be something i could just lay on the cuddy top when at anchor and use battery clamps for attaching?
And (excuse ignorance) what is the function of the "controller"....

tom
 
Tom,
Take a look at our photo album and you will see the small Sunsei Solar Panels that we use to keep our batteries topped off. You can lay these on the roof or you can purchase the mounts such as we have. I just lead the cord down into the helm and plug it into the 12 volt outlet. You can pick these up on sale for around a $100.00.
 
The controller keeps the battery charged without overcharging it. Without it you could damage your battery if you leave the solar panels hooked up all of the time. With small panels you usually don't have to worry about it but this is a little bigger and could cause problems with your battery. The SE-1201 has a separate controller included (1200 does not). I just received it today and it works great so far. Charging my cell phone off of the kitchen lights...lol. It has all the cables you need and has a really sturdy feel, including one with battery clamps, one with a 12v cigarette socket, and also a female jack for a cigarette socket so you can just plug it into a cigarette socket to charge your battery. I'm going to mount it over the weekend. Docs say it can charge two batteries simultaneously.

Solitude-Karma folks have great pics on how they did it. Worth a study.

Doug
 
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