Winter strategy

[sunstroke]

Greetings
I have just finished installing (almost) my MNEMS4024CL150 system on an island in Casco Bay.  I have 6 230 watt panels and 12 Trojan T105 REs set up as 3 parallel 24 volt strings.  So far so good - Set up wizard was a breeze on the Classic 150 seems to be doing everything it should... The system is to support a house that is under construction, and I'm not actually using any AC power from the inverter at this point...
Here is my query - In a few weeks the weather, and my squeamishness about open boat rides in the dead of winter are going to end my access to the island until early spring.  I want to ensure that the system (particularly batteries) maintain in good health unattended.  Since there will be no loads on the batteries, I'm thinking that a "float only" charging strategy is my best bet.  It could be as long as 12-15 weeks before I can get back to check water levels etc.  Any thoughts on how I can best set this up? Thanks
-Chuck

[boB]

Ryan may have other ideas as well, but you could set the maximum Absorb time to a lesser than 2 Hour value.

What would be better would be to set up an Auto EQ (software coming out in a few days, maybe monday ?), set the
EQ Voltage setting to your typical Absorb voltage setting, (which does happen to be the Absorb setting by default),
turn the Absorb voltage to the Float voltage setting, and have that Auto EQ be called up once every week or two.

This would be like,  "Vacation Mode", which I think is what you want.

Keeping the Absorb time slow should be a decent work around.  Fill them batteries up though first before you leave
for the winter !   An auto-watering system also helps in unattended situations like this too.

boB

[Halfcrazy]

Chuck
I would keep it simple and just set the Absorb set point maybe .5 volts lower than normal. The Trojan batteries do not use a lot of water I run a lot of the T105's and I run them real hot 59.2 to 59.4vdc absorb set points on a 48 volt battery and my customers usually water once every 4-6 months.

You still want some absorb charge I feel. The days are very short here in Maine in the winter and I also assume there is no Heat in the battery room? So I would be inclined to at the most shorten the Absorb time to minimum of 15 minutes and maximum of 1 hr and drop the absorb set point maybe to the lower end of Trojans recommended settings.

Ryan