Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My wife and I recently purchased a small, off-the-grid cabin in New Mexcio at the beginning of 2014, and we needed some way to power lights, charge our laptop, and run a small electric drill. We purchased this Renogy Solar Panel Starter Kit in hopes that it would do just that. (A word of warning - if you don't know how to use electricity, then you will be spending a lot of time doing your research. For me, I was lucky enough to have a father-in-law who has a degree in electrical engineering, but even then, I've spend several dozen hours reading about solar power set-ups.) In two afternoons, my father-in-law and I hooked everything up. We purchased a small 8 amp-hour AGM battery from Batteries Plus for under $15, and then, we bought a 1000 watt inverter from Bestek. We took a 18 inch by 18 inch piece of plywood, placed some galvanized sheet metal (as a common ground) on the board, and mounted the controller and inverter to the sheet metal. We wired everything with 12 gauge wire, placed 10 amp fuses between all the connections, added a switch to cut the power from the panels, and added a small 12 volt light from an auto parts store (so I can see everything when it is dark). After connecting everything, we added the solar panel, and everything works as advertised. The panel will output around 20 volts or so in full sun, and with inefficiencies in the system, it will run about 65 watts worth of lights (measured with a Kill-a-Watt device) before it dips into the battery's storage. I've drained the 8 amp hour battery down to 50%, and the panel will charge it to nearly 100% (indicated by a flashing light on the controller) in roughly a half hour. After 30 minutes of flashing, the controller will then drop its voltage from 14.4 down to 13.6 to go into float charge mode, and the battery is maintained and ready for usage. I've been experimenting with my whole system for several weeks, and I'm confident (even with my lack of electrical knowledge) that I can take this set-up to my cabin and be able to have some basic electricity. I've run my electric drill, some LED light bulbs, and an iPad charger with no problems. The next step, though, is for me to get a bigger battery (8 amps goes quickly) and to buy a grounding rod/cable and expand the amount of amps that can go to the battery (the 10 amp fuse doesn't allow for much juice). Anyway, I highly recommend Renogy since their controller, panel, and cables all work as advertised (I'll install it with the brackets soon). The packaging is excellent. The instructions were helpful. And overall, I will buy Renogy products in the future (possibly to expand the number of panels, soon).