Enphase isn't the only supplier of microinverters, but in general the microinverter goes on the frame and plugs into the panel.
Then, like any system, there may be rooftop combiner boxes to join thinner gauge branch cables into thicker feed cables. If you need a rooftop combiner depends on how many panels you have.
With Enphase, you'll typically want an IQ Combiner box with an Envoy. From there the IQ Combiner can feed into the house's load panel or a line-side tap, it also serves as the outdoor disconnect.
The Envoy is the main monitoring hub. It talks ethernet over powerline to the microinverters and can report data to Enphase making it easy for you to see everything with a free app or web browser. You can also get the information locally via a web browser to the Envoy. The Envoy has a server built-in, so it's pretty easy.
I know you said you don't want batteries now, but a couple of things you might want to consider as it pays to think about future wiring ahead of time. The two main ways of using a battery with Enphase are
AC Coupling, or their in-house solution known as Ensemble which consists of an Enpower and Encharge batteries (see the diagram below for a whole-house battery backup option). Even without batteries, you can get
daytime power out of your system with the Enpower and one or more IQ8 microinverters attached to your panels.
Below is one way it can be hooked up providing whole-house backup, you decide what runs at the load panel by switching off what you don't want to run. It can also be set up with a more traditional "critical-circuits" panel. The Enpower serves as a 200 amp automatic transfer switch, a neutral forming autotransformer (allows imbalances between L1 & L2 which a lot of inverters won't), and has Microgrid Interconnect Device (MID) functionality. The generator says
future, but it's an old image and the ability is ready now.
The nice thing with microinverters is the stuff you don't need (e.g., arc-fault protection), no single points of failure, no shade or string issues, easy to expand, per panel diagnostics, 25-year warranties, no fan noise or conversion hum, high efficiencies, per panel MPPT, less RF interference, better safety, easier to replace, hard to accidentally mis-wire, inverters don't take up additional space, probably more ; -)
