Are source RPM's and binary RPM's installed the same way?
 

are they?

Yes they are but srpms don't show up in the list of installed rpms.

I might add that, when you install a .src.rpm, you do not get an app you can use. You get a couple of files in /usr/src/<kernel version>/SOURCES AND /usr/src/<kernel version>/SPECS.

A source rpm is just that; source code, with a spec files which tells rpm what to do with if when you try to compile the source to get a binary, installable, runable rpm.

If you use Fedora and install the feodra rpm dev tools, you can actually install source rpms as a normal user or build rpms as a non root user. Other rpm based distros have got this ability but usually it means you have to do some manual configuration first.