I think the 30 watt will overall be a good choice. Likely aready mentioned but try and avoid even a small amout of shading as you will get a disproportionate amount of solar power loss.
Just a little extra note on the fuse. The fuse between the charge controller (which you absolutely need) and the battery is the important one and lots of good advice already given.
A fuse between the controller and the panel is the one that's harder to figure out and I would likely just go with what the controller manual says.
The details.. you can short a solar panel all day long and no problem at all. The problem is that if there is a charge controller that is hooked up to a battery and the solar panel is generating power, this will turn on a circuit in the charge controller that is very sensitive to being shorted. My personal experience is that once I had some sort of fuse between the panel and the controller that was rated at slightly higher current than the panel could ever put out. But.. I accidently shorted the wires at the solar panel on a sunny day and the fuse did not blow but the input circuit to the charge controller did blow. I ruined the charger controller.
Someone mentioned putting a blanket over the solar panel anytime there is the slightest risk of shorting the wires between the panel and the controller. I think this is generally good advice. This may not be necessary with every type of controller but the only way to know for sure is the short things which more than likely will damage the controller. And of course you do not want to use alligator clips to connect the panel the controller as that adds big risk for shorting things.
Just a little extra note on the fuse. The fuse between the charge controller (which you absolutely need) and the battery is the important one and lots of good advice already given.
A fuse between the controller and the panel is the one that's harder to figure out and I would likely just go with what the controller manual says.
The details.. you can short a solar panel all day long and no problem at all. The problem is that if there is a charge controller that is hooked up to a battery and the solar panel is generating power, this will turn on a circuit in the charge controller that is very sensitive to being shorted. My personal experience is that once I had some sort of fuse between the panel and the controller that was rated at slightly higher current than the panel could ever put out. But.. I accidently shorted the wires at the solar panel on a sunny day and the fuse did not blow but the input circuit to the charge controller did blow. I ruined the charger controller.
Someone mentioned putting a blanket over the solar panel anytime there is the slightest risk of shorting the wires between the panel and the controller. I think this is generally good advice. This may not be necessary with every type of controller but the only way to know for sure is the short things which more than likely will damage the controller. And of course you do not want to use alligator clips to connect the panel the controller as that adds big risk for shorting things.
