Repair Service
RV Solar and Power Systems for San Clemente Owners
Short answer
We install complete off-grid power: MPPT charge controllers, LiFePO4 house banks and properly sealed roof penetrations. Typical solar builds run $1,500 to $12,000 depending on array size.
OCRV Center designs and installs complete RV solar and off-grid power systems: rigid or flexible panels, MPPT charge controllers, LiFePO4 house banks, DC-DC chargers and correctly sized inverters, all wired and sealed in our Yorba Linda shop. San Clemente owners reach us in about 45 minutes.
Updated 2026-07-29 by OCRV Center Editorial Team
Most RV solar systems that come to us for repair were not installed badly on purpose. They were installed by someone who understood panels and did not understand charging. A pair of 200 watt panels feeding a PWM controller into three year old flooded lead acid batteries will make impressive numbers on a sunny Yorba Linda afternoon and still leave you sitting at 11.9 volts by six in the morning. The array was never the limiting part of that system. The controller, the wire gauge, the battery chemistry and the load budget were.
Solar on a recreational vehicle is four problems solved at once: a charging system, a storage system, a conversion system, and a roof penetration problem. Get the storage right and undersize the wire and you will heat a run of 10 gauge behind a wall. Get the wire right and mount the panels with self tapping screws into a laminated roof and you will find water in the ceiling panel two winters later. We treat solar as a whole-coach system because that is exactly how it fails.
San Clemente owners usually want the same outcome. Enough capacity to sit at San Onofre or up behind Rancho San Clemente for four or five days without listening to a generator, and enough charging to get back to full on the drive home. That is a solvable problem with real numbers behind it. It is rarely solved by adding one more panel. It is solved by measuring what you actually consume overnight and then building the bank, the controller and the alternator charging path around that number.
What a Complete RV Solar and Power Installation Includes
A solar installation is not one deliverable. It is a charging path from the roof to the bank, a second charging path from the alternator, a third from shore power, a conversion path from the bank to your 120V outlets, and a monitoring layer that lets you see all of it. When any one of those is missing or mismatched, the system underperforms in a way that looks like a panel problem and almost never is.
We build every system as a documented package. You get a wiring diagram, labeled runs, fuses and breakers sized to the conductor rather than to the load, and a shunt based monitor so you can read actual amp hours instead of guessing from a voltage light. If we install lithium, the converter and the alternator path get addressed at the same time, because a lithium bank behind a lead acid charge profile is a bank that never reaches full and dies early.
- Array and mounting
- Rigid or flexible panels laid out around vents, antennas and air conditioners, mounted to bonded standoffs or a fabricated rack rather than screwed blind into a laminated roof deck.
- Charge control
- MPPT controller sized to array voltage and bank capacity, wired in the correct sequence, with temperature compensation and a charge profile matched to your actual battery chemistry.
- House storage
- AGM, lithium or LiFePO4 bank with a proper battery management system, class T or ANL fusing at the positive terminal, and a compartment that can carry the weight and vent correctly.
- Inversion and distribution
- Pure sine inverter or inverter charger sized to your load budget, tied into a subpanel or a transfer relay so the right circuits run on battery and the air conditioner does not trip you offline.
- Monitoring and documentation
- Shunt based battery monitor, Bluetooth or panel display, a printed wiring diagram, and photographs of every run before the walls and ceiling panels close up.
Rigid or Flexible Panels, and Why the Controller Decides Your Harvest
Rigid framed panels are what we recommend on almost every motorhome, fifth wheel and travel trailer with a walkable roof. They run cooler because air moves under them, they survive hail and branch strikes, and they are serviceable one panel at a time. Flexible panels earn their place on curved fiberglass caps, on van roofs where height matters, and on any roof where the added standoff would create a wind or clearance problem. They also run hotter, lose output faster, and are harder to replace once bonded down.
The controller matters more than most owners expect. A PWM controller drags the panel down to battery voltage and throws away the difference. An MPPT controller converts the excess voltage into usable current. On a cool morning with a 12V bank and a 20V panel, that difference is real: MPPT commonly recovers twenty to thirty percent more harvest from the same array. On a high voltage series string, the gap gets wider still.
Wire gauge and run length are the third variable and the one nobody quotes. Voltage drop on a long undersized run from the roof combiner to the controller quietly eats the harvest you paid for and heats the conductor while doing it. We size conductors to the run, not to the connector that came in the kit.
- Rigid framed panels
- Higher sustained output, cooler operating temperature, individually replaceable. Mounted on bonded aluminum standoffs or a fabricated rack that spreads load into the roof structure rather than into one screw.
- Flexible laminate panels
- Low profile and light, correct for curved caps and height sensitive van builds. Expect shorter service life and plan for adhesive removal at replacement rather than unbolting.
- MPPT over PWM
- MPPT converts panel voltage above battery voltage into current instead of discarding it. On a typical 12V system that is roughly twenty to thirty percent more usable harvest from the same panels.
- Series versus parallel strings
- Series raises voltage and reduces wire loss but suffers under partial shade. Parallel tolerates shade better and demands heavier conductors. We choose based on your roof layout and typical parking.
- Portable supplements
- A ground deployable panel lets you park a coach in shade and still charge. Useful in Doheny and San Onofre sites where the good spots are under trees.
A LiFePO4 House Bank Is Not a Drop-In Swap
Lithium iron phosphate is worth the money for most owners who camp off shore power. You get usable capacity down to roughly ten or twenty percent state of charge instead of fifty, you get several times the cycle life, and you cut the weight of the bank roughly in half. What you do not get is the ability to drop it into a coach built around lead acid and walk away.
Three things have to change with the bank. The converter or inverter charger needs a lithium charge profile, because a lead acid absorption and float schedule will either undercharge the pack or hold it at a voltage it should not sit at. The alternator path needs current limiting, because a large lithium bank will accept everything a stock alternator can produce and cook it. And the low temperature charge cutoff in the battery management system has to be understood, because a pack that refuses charge below freezing is protecting itself and not failing.
We also fuse properly. A LiFePO4 bank can deliver enormous short circuit current, which is exactly why a class T fuse belongs at the positive terminal on any bank that can source it. That single part is the difference between a loose lug and a fire.
- Battery management system
- Cell level balancing, over-voltage and under-voltage cutoff, over-current protection and low temperature charge lockout. Internal on drop-in packs, external on custom built banks.
- Converter charge profile
- The stock converter or inverter charger has to be reprogrammed or replaced for lithium. A lead acid float schedule will leave a LiFePO4 pack chronically short of full.
- Class T fusing
- Lithium banks can source thousands of amps into a dead short. A class T fuse at the positive terminal is the correct interrupt rating. An automotive blade fuse is not.
- Compartment and mounting
- Weight moves and often drops by half, so the tray, the hold-downs and the vent path all get revisited. Lithium does not vent hydrogen, which changes what that compartment needs.
- Low temperature behavior
- Charging below freezing damages LiFePO4 cells, so the BMS blocks it. Self heating packs or a heated compartment solve this for owners who take the coach to the Sierras in winter.
Solar Is Only One of Four Ways to Fill the Bank
Owners fixate on the roof and forget that most coaches have three other charging sources, and that the drive home is usually the fastest one. A DC-DC charger takes power from the chassis alternator, converts it to the correct profile for the house bank, and limits the current so the alternator lives. On a 40 amp unit, a three hour drive back up the I-5 puts more into the bank than a good day of sun on a modest array.
Shore power is the second source and it is where we find the most neglected hardware. Automatic transfer switches are consumable parts. The contacts arc, they pit, and eventually one leg drops out and half the coach goes dark while the panel still shows power. Pedestal voltage at older parks sags under load, and a converter fed 104 volts will not produce rated output no matter how good the battery is.
Generator start is the fourth. Automatic generator start watches state of charge or voltage and fires the genset when the bank falls below a threshold, which matters most when you leave a residential refrigerator running while the coach is parked. We configure the thresholds so it does not cycle all night.
- DC-DC charger
- Alternator to house charging with the correct voltage profile and a hard current limit. Protects the stock alternator and typically outpaces the roof array on any driving day.
- Automatic transfer switch
- Switches the coach between shore and generator. Contacts pit and fail with age. Symptoms look like a random dead circuit, not like a switch problem, which is why it gets misdiagnosed.
- Shore power inlet and cord
- Overheated 30 or 50 amp inlets, melted blades and corroded neutrals cause voltage sag and nuisance trips. We test under load, not with a meter on an unloaded circuit.
- Automatic generator start
- Threshold based start and stop tied to state of charge, with configured quiet hours so the genset does not wake the site at two in the morning to top off a refrigerator.
- Inverter charger integration
- Magnum, Xantrex and Victron units act as charger, inverter and pass-through in one box. Correct configuration of shore current limit and load support is what stops pedestal breaker trips.
How We Size an Inverter Against Your Actual Load Budget
Inverter sizing is where most quotes go wrong in both directions. Undersize it and the microwave browns out. Oversize it and you carry a large idle draw and a bank that cannot support the surge you paid for. The correct method is boring: list every load, note its running watts and its surge, note how many hours a day it actually runs, and add it up. A residential refrigerator, a handful of LED fixtures, a water pump and device charging is a very different budget from that same list plus a 15,000 BTU air conditioner.
Air conditioning is the honest conversation. Running a rooftop unit off battery is possible with a soft start, a 3,000 watt inverter and a bank in the 400 to 600 amp hour range, and it is expensive. For many owners the better answer is a properly configured generator auto start plus a bank sized for everything else. We will give you both numbers and let you choose with real figures rather than a sales pitch.
Once the budget is set, the bank follows from it. Usable capacity, not nameplate capacity, is what matters, and that is where LiFePO4 changes the math against AGM at the same physical size.
- Load inventory
- Every device measured or rated for running watts, surge watts and daily runtime hours, then converted to amp hours at 12V so the bank and the array can be sized against one number.
- Surge headroom
- Compressors and microwaves draw several times running current at startup. An inverter that cannot cover surge will shut down under a load it can otherwise carry all day.
- Soft start on rooftop AC
- A soft start module cuts compressor inrush enough to run a 15,000 BTU unit from a large inverter or a small generator. It does not reduce running consumption.
- Usable versus nameplate capacity
- A 200 amp hour AGM bank gives roughly 100 usable amp hours. A 200 amp hour LiFePO4 bank gives roughly 180. Same shelf space, nearly double the camping.
Roof Penetrations Are Where Solar Installations Fail
Every wire that goes from your roof to your interior passes through a hole somebody made. That hole is now a permanent maintenance item, and the way it was made determines whether you have a solar system or a slow leak with panels on top of it. We see the same failures repeatedly: self tapping screws driven into laminated roof decking with a bead of hardware store silicone over the head, cable entries with no strain relief, and mounting feet placed directly over a roof truss without any consideration for how the roof flexes on the freeway.
The correct approach is to reduce penetration count, bond where possible, and seal with the right chemistry. Silicone does not bond to TPO or EPDM in any lasting way and it prevents anything else from bonding later. We use self leveling lap sealant on horizontal surfaces and non-sag sealant on vertical, over butyl tape, over a fastener that actually landed in structure. Where a roof cannot carry point loads, we reinforce it or fabricate a rack that spreads the load into the sidewall structure instead.
This is also the part of a solar job that shows up on a collision or water damage claim years later. If we find delamination or soft decking during layout, we tell you before we mount anything, because bolting an array to a compromised roof buys you nothing.
- Bonded standoffs
- Structural adhesive mounts spread load across the roof skin with no fastener through the membrane. First choice on laminated fiberglass roofs where a screw has nothing solid to bite.
- Correct sealant chemistry
- Self leveling lap sealant on horizontal surfaces, non-sag on vertical, over butyl tape. Silicone gets removed, not added, because nothing bonds to a surface it has touched.
- Single entry gland
- One sealed, strain relieved cable gland instead of several holes. Fewer penetrations means fewer future leak paths and one place to inspect each season.
- Roof reinforcement
- Where decking is thin or soft, we add backing plates or fabricate a rack that transfers array load into the sidewall structure rather than into the roof skin.
| Line item | Range | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Roof reinforcement and solar roof rack fabrication and install | $750 to $6,500 | 4 to 30 |
| Transfer switch and shore power diagnosticsDiagnostic time is billed at $285 per hour, one hour minimum, credited against an authorized repair. | $285 to $1,500 |
Ranges reflect real jobs we have run. Final figures come from a written estimate after we see the vehicle.
What This Costs at Our Posted Rates
Body and paint labor is posted at $210 per hour. Mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour. Diagnostics run $285 per hour with a one hour minimum that is credited back against an authorized repair. Ranges below reflect jobs we have actually completed.
| Line item | Range | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Solar panel installation, rigid and flexible, with MPPT controller | $1,500 to $12,000+ | 8 to 40 |
| Solar install, roof panels with MPPT and lithium house bank | $1,500 to $12,000 | 8 to 40 |
| Solar installation, roof array plus portable panel | $1,200 to $8,500 | 6 to 35 |
| House battery replacement, AGM, lithium or LiFePO4 | $500 to $5,500 | 2 to 10 |
| Inverter and charger replacement, Magnum, Xantrex or Victron | $750 to $4,500 | 3 to 14 |
| 12V electrical, auxiliary battery and inverter system build | $750 to $7,500 | 4 to 30 |
| Roof reinforcement and solar roof rack install | $750 to $6,500 | 4 to 30 |
Ranges reflect real jobs we have run. Final figures come from a written estimate after we see the vehicle.
See the full rate card and estimate policy.
Our Process and What It Takes
Bring the coach in and talk numbers
We walk the roof, open the battery compartment, look at the existing converter and inverter, and build a load budget with you from what you actually run.
Day 1
System design and written proposal
Array size, controller, bank chemistry and capacity, inverter rating and charging paths, priced as line items so you can see what each piece costs.
Days 2 to 5
Roof layout and structure check
Panels are laid out dry on the roof, penetration points are marked, and decking is checked for softness or delamination before anything is drilled or bonded.
Day 1 of shop time
Mounting, wiring and sealing
Standoffs or rack go on, conductors are pulled and sized to the run, the cable gland is sealed, and every disturbed penetration is finished with the correct sealant.
Days 2 to 6 of shop time
Bank, controller, inverter and charge paths
Battery bank installed and fused, controller and inverter configured, converter profile corrected, DC-DC charger tied to the alternator and current limited.
Days 4 to 12 of shop time
Commissioning and handoff
Loaded output test, charge test on all sources, monitor calibration, water test on every penetration, then a walkthrough of the diagram and the monitor with you.
Final 1 to 2 days
What Is Included
- Load budget worked out from your actual devices and runtime, not a package guess
- Roof layout planned around vents, antennas, air conditioners and walk paths
- Rigid or flexible panel selection with the reasoning explained before you authorize
- MPPT charge controller sized to array voltage and bank capacity
- AGM, lithium or LiFePO4 house bank with correct fusing and hold-downs
- Converter or inverter charger reprogrammed or replaced to match battery chemistry
- DC-DC alternator charging path with current limiting to protect the alternator
- Pure sine inverter sized to surge as well as running load, tied to a subpanel
- Shunt based battery monitor with display or Bluetooth readout
- Printed wiring diagram, labeled runs, and photographs of every run before panels close
Questions We Get Asked
How much does RV solar installation cost?
A rigid or flexible panel installation with an MPPT controller runs $1,500 to $12,000 and takes 8 to 40 hours depending on array size and how far the wire has to travel. Adding a LiFePO4 house bank sits in the same band. Mechanical and electrical labor is posted at $260 per hour. We price the array, the bank and the inverter as separate line items.
How long will my RV be in the shop for a solar and lithium build?
A straightforward two panel install with a controller is usually three to five days. A full build with a lithium bank, a new inverter charger, a DC-DC charger and a monitor typically runs one to two weeks of shop time. Roof reinforcement or a fabricated rack adds several days. We give you a written date at authorization and update it if parts move.
How many panels and how much battery do I actually need?
That comes out of a load budget, not a guess. We list every device, its running watts and its daily runtime, convert it to amp hours at 12V, then size the bank to cover one to two nights and the array to replace it in a day. Most owners who camp without hookups land between 400 and 800 watts of solar and 200 to 400 amp hours of LiFePO4.
Can I run my air conditioner on solar and batteries?
Yes, with real hardware and real cost. A single 15,000 BTU rooftop unit needs a soft start, a 3,000 watt inverter and a bank in the 400 to 600 amp hour range, and even then you are measuring runtime in hours rather than days. Many owners get better value from a smaller bank plus automatic generator start. We will price both.
Do you install solar and auxiliary power on camper vans and work vans?
Yes. Sprinter, Transit and ProMaster builds are a large share of this work. Van roofs are height sensitive and often curved, so flexible panels or low profile rigid mounting matters, and the alternator path usually does more charging than the roof does. We handle auxiliary battery systems for work vans running tools and refrigeration as well.
My solar was installed elsewhere and it never charges properly. Can you diagnose it?
Yes, and this is a large part of what we do. Diagnostics are billed at $285 per hour with a one hour minimum, credited against an authorized repair. Common findings are a PWM controller behind a lithium bank, undersized conductors on a long roof run, a converter still on a lead acid profile, or a corroded connection at the combiner.