12V LED Lights

yes, you can connect it to the load partition of your charge controller.  If your charge controller has a low voltage disconnect (like a morningstar sunsaver 6L) then you want to use the charge controller so that your load (in this case the lights) do not discharge your batteries to the point of doing harm to them (the batteries).  If your charge controller has no low voltage disconnect feature (morningstar sunsaver 6) then it really does not matter whether you use the charge controller or battery posts.  In a code compliant system, by hooking the loads up to the charge controller, you should have a disconnecting means via the circuit breakers between the charge controller and the batteries and PV panel.  This ensures that you have a way to shut off the current to the lights if you should need to service them, without having to touch live dc wiring.

- Alt-E staff  -- james