GWW,
I don't think it matters where you put your equipment. Look at the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Disclaimer, I am not a professional electrician but have been doing this for 30+ years all over the midwest. I do, however, have other credentials that are usually accepted unless the inspectors brother is an electrician or I have made stupid mistakes and ignored NEC. So you can take all this typing as a grain of salt. This is just what I do.
OK, this is the thought process I do with the systems I have built, simplified.
Determine where you want your system located.
Isolate the batteries and their corrosive air from everything else.
Use graph paper to cut out dimensions of all the items in the systems.
Use a second piece of graph paper as a 'board' to move the pieces around to get them to fit the way you want them. Be sure to use the graph paper scales. Leave enough room between components to be able to hook them up without being a contortionists.
Size all the wire and wire runs with the NEC wiring charts. Now, this is my deviation from NEC. I use one size wire larger than required for wind and solar. Use Ohm's law for resistance and determine the power you will loose in the system for each peticular run. You want less than 2% loss system wide. If you don't do this, you will pay for it in power for the rest of the system life.
Now you know the wire size, go back to NEC diagrams and pictures and decide how you are going to put that wire into pipe to protect it, you and the kids that will inadvertently think this is a coolest monkey bar setup they have ever seen. Use 40% on the conduit fill tables to put the wire into the pipe.
No holes, gaps in the wiring, boxes or nothing else. Don't substitute parts that look the same.
Grey PVC is easy to work with.
Use a dull knife or a stripper when removing insulation from wires. Sharp knives can nick the wires which can cause them to break off later.
When you are wiring the neutral in the breaker box or any other box that has a 'thingy' you screw onto the wire to hold it in place, be sure to show both sides of the copper wire on each side of the connection. An inspector looks to see if you have screwed the nut down onto the insulation.
NEC= SAFETY period. No exceptions.
The guy over on the NAWS site has a spreadsheet the is one of the best I have seen. He posts frequently, so it should be easy to find.
I hope this helps and does not get you into big trouble. Pros are worth their money but you seem bent on doing it yourself. That's why i posted this.
