I recently purchased a Sunsei 1500(miliamps) solar panel. When I tested the open circuit voltage at "high noon" in Chicago it was 20 volts. Sunsei advertises that the panel can be used to power electrical devices directly. In that 20 volts could ruin ceretain 12 volt electronics I asked the question to their tech guy. He indicated that the company was "investigating" their advertisement" and agreed that nothing other than batteries should be connected directly to the panels. I went to Nigel Calders bible and it confirms that the open circuit voltage of these panels is often 18 - 19 volts . The panels seem to work quite well for maintaing my Trojan 400 amp hour battery system. If I leave the boat for extended periods, I will use a controller to prevent overcharging. BTW the panel si rated at 22.5 watts which pegs the voltage at 15 volts.
anyway so much for advertised claims.
Ken
I'm embarrassed to ask, but is 1500 miliamps equal to 1.5 amps, or 0.15 amps or what?
A milliamp is 1/1000th of an amp so 1500 milliamps = 1.5 amps.