long vacation question.

Welcome to the forum Jzeier,

If these are flooded cell lead acid batteries--You don't want to leave them sitting without charging. More or less, at ~75F and above, they will self discharge to 75% state of charge in 30 days--And if not recharged, the batteries will begin to sulfate (technically sulfate even faster) and when you comeback in 6 months, the batteries will have lost most of their storage capacity/be close to dead. If batteries are over 75F, they will even self discharge faster (for every 10C/18F increase in temperature, they will self discharge 2x faster--i.e., at 93F will need charging every 2 weeks). Conversely, every 10C decrease in temperature, self discharge is cut by 1/2 (and batteries age at 1/2 the rate).

Normally--Suggest turning off any and all loads (some people have security systems, and we need to take those loads into account). And have the solar charger set to "float" the battery bank (typically around 13.6-13.8 volts) while you are gone. There should be little (if any) water usage by the batteries.

Also, if you have other issues (such as possible solar panel theft in your area)--you can typically get away with a much smaller solar array--Typically 1-2% rate of charge (or almost 1/10th the size of your normal array). Take down the full array and leave/install a small array and a small solar charger to float the bank.

More or less--It all comes down to your solar charge controller--As long as you know it will float the battery bank while you are away--You are golden.

If the charger will charge >14.x volts (for a 12 volt system), then you want to change/reprogram the solar charging for summer storage--Or install a second/smaller charge controller that will properly float your batteries while you are away.

And you may want to closely monitor your solar system while you are there... On a day where you do not use solar, what does the charge voltage settle out too?

-Bill