I have the 5 watt and 2.5 watt versions of this solar panel, and I have to give them full marks for being easy to use, well-made, and put together nicely as a kit.The NOCO solar panels are sold as "Battery Maintainers" and that is their most obvious use, but they don't have to be just for keeping engine batteries topped up. I have half dozen batteries I use with my various solar panels (old car batteries, deep-cycle batteries). I charge them up, then bring them in to my RV to attach to my inverters, and run appliances and electronics from them that way.These panels come with battery clamp connectors, so I just attach them to my batteries outside in the sun. I have a multimeter to tell me when a battery is fully charged and ready to go. Since I don't need to run anything directly from the solar panel, and I use electricity sparingly, I don't need bigger panels. I just give them the time they need to do their thing. It's more crucial that I have a large enough wattage on my power inverter, actually.With these being as low-watt as they are, you don't need to buy/hook up an additional charge controller. That makes these basically plug and go panels, which is nice if you are new to using solar power and don't want to drop a lot of money experimenting with it. You still need an have an inverter for AC power uses, however.PERSONAL SOLAR NOTESAltogether, I have a 15-watt solar panel, two five watt panels, the 2.5 watt panel and a 1 watt mini-panel (from different companies). I also have an assortment of stand-alone solar gadgets. I have four deep cycle batteries I am always charging up with a panel attached, and rotate things around. I have several inverters to hook different things up to.If you live in a sort of camping/RV/low income situation, like I do most of the time, this really is enough to get by with. I can use my entertainment devices, lights, low watt cooking appliances, fans for air and a small personal space heater, and that's all my needs right there.RECOMMENDATIONObviously, for the typical person living in a home with all the luxuries, this isn't going to be enough of a solar system to run a household. We are only talking 2.5 or 5 watts in either panel. However, for people living an extreme frugal lifestyle, or living out of their car or an RV, these panels are nice to have around.More to the point for most people, these little panels could be lifesaving if an emergency situation hits your area. You could pull out your car/boat/lawn mower battery and charge it up if you had to, and - using an inverter or a DC appliance - get power. You could charge your phone and make a call out, or connect to the internet. You could charge your Kindle and the kids could have days of reading time available. You could hook up a lamp and have light.And they do keep a car battery topped up nicely with the included cigarette lighter (12-volt plug) connector.  :)