Mount a solar inverter where the case stays out of direct sun, where air can move across the heatsink at the clearances the manual draws, where the noise is acceptable to the people who live with it, and where a qualified person can see the disconnects that isolate it. A sealed closet fails the list even when it is close to the main panel. So does a south-facing wall in the afternoon sun, and so does a mounting height that hides the disconnect behind stored furniture.
Sun, air, and the sound of the fan
The derating curve assumes an air temperature and a clearance. A case in full sun runs hotter than the shaded air beside it, so the inverter can fold its output on a day the weather app calls moderate. Shade the enclosure with the building, or with a shield the manufacturer allows, without blocking the fins. How that heat becomes a power limit is in heat, altitude, and inverter derating. Dust on the fins and a filter nobody can reach undo the same curve. If the manual shows a filter, the location has to let someone service it without uninstalling the inverter.
Clearance is a drawing, not a suggestion. The centimeters or inches on that drawing are the ones for this model. A gap that looks generous and is still under the drawing is still under the drawing. Stacking the inverter under a shelf, or tight between two batteries, traps the warm exhaust against the intake. Wall-mounted units often breathe in a direction the arrows show. Mounting one on its side because the studs were convenient can aim the exhaust at a joist. Follow the orientation the manual allows, including any ban on flat mounting.
Fans and transformers make noise, and they make it for years. A garage wall shared with a bedroom will be regretted in July, when the fan runs for hours. Earshot is the test: stand where people sleep or talk and imagine that sound on a hot afternoon. Garages, utility rooms, and exterior walls that do not face a neighbor's window are the usual successes. A hallway that seemed clever at commissioning becomes the thing everyone hears on phone calls. The manual sometimes prints a sound figure. If it does, believe that figure for that model. If it does not, believe your ears at full fan, not the showroom.
The disconnects have to stay visible
Isolation only works if the next person can find the handle and see that it belongs to this inverter. The practice of placing disconnects within sight is applied by the inspector and the adopted rule. This page will not give the distance. What the AC and DC devices are for is in AC and DC disconnects for solar. A cupboard that must be unlocked, emptied of coats, and searched does not meet the spirit of a means of isolation a firefighter or a technician can use. Leave a working space in front of the handles, and label them.
Outdoors, the enclosure code has to be an outdoor code once the glands are done as the manual shows. What IP digits do and do not mean is in what an IP rating means on an inverter. An indoor inverter under a picnic awning is still an indoor inverter unless the manual accepts that shelter. Coastal salt, irrigation spray, and a sprinkler head aimed at the wall are site facts the IP code may not have included. Read the manual's exclusion list before you call a wall outdoors-ready.
Service access is part of the location
Someone will replace a fan, a communications board, or the whole unit. The location needs the clearance the service section draws for removing the cover, and a path to bring a replacement in without dismantling a kitchen. Mounting between finished cabinets looks clean and makes the second visit destructive. Height matters for the same reason: a unit high under a ceiling may meet a clearance drawing and still be a ladder job for every reset. Prefer a height a qualified person can work at safely, inside whatever range the manual and the local rule both allow.
Keep combustible storage, paint, and chlorine away from the vents. Keep the battery, if the run length requires the inverter to sit near it, in a room that also satisfies the battery's own temperature and ventilation rules. The inverter's favorite wall and the battery's favorite room are sometimes different rooms. When the cable chart and the heat chart disagree, believe both and change the layout until both are true. A location that only satisfies the cable, and cooks the inverter, has not finished the design.
