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just considering getting one but i dont know much... can anyone give me any suggestions? just want one to power a seperate battery to supply light when camping. have found a smallish one that puts out 12w. will this be adequate?

12W is only good enough to trickle charge a battery really, its 12W at midday brightest light ideal condition only I bet.......
I can highly recommend the flexible amorphorous type panel - 32Watt, even helped me recharge battery enough to start engine in the morning after possibly using it a bit too much the nite before.
Have got a crystalline type -solarex - wich is good, but the flexible types are far better in convenience, altho even more expensive $ per watt....
Got a small crystalline one too, 10W, got it ages ago, breaks too easily ...not worth it!

sounds like too much stuffing around than its worth unless i wanna spend large amounts of money

It really depends on how much you want to spend.

If you set up another SMALL battery, with a manual switch for charging from the engine ( were talking cheap setup here) and use low voltage LED units, 3 or 4, will litterally draw milli amps, and you wont need to charge. I ran my entire caravan ( in which I was living at the time) on 1 12 v battery, lighting, microwave, TV, Video, with a trickle charge solar unit in summer, and subsidised bya kmart charger (a 3 amp jobbie) during winter.

Be smart, research what you need, amperage, voltage and see what all the alternatives are. work to find out what your worst requirements will be and work backwards to meet that need - not an overkill.

It doesn't need to be complicated, or expensive.

My brother, used to have an alternitive energy business - he ran his whole house on solar - that cost him under 3K to set up - even including the backup Generator (which he built himself with an alternater)