Some Xantrex XW questions

stephendv

Have some questions about the XW series which isn't answered in the tech specs on their site.

- Continuous output power is rated at 4500VA. Most other inverters give a range of output powers based on the temperature. E.g. 4000VA at 25C and 3500VA at 40C. Anyone know what the ratings for the XW are (or is it really 4500VA no matter the temperature?)

- Search mode consumption is given as < 7W. Is this the no-load consumption?

- Can you monitor the inverter with a PC? and are there any free programmer API's available to write your own programs for it?

- The linklight battery monitors seem to have an input voltage range of 0 to 35V, what are you supposed to use for the 48V XW systems?

- If you do use a Xantrex battery monitor, does the XW then take it's SoC readings from the monitor instead of it's own simple voltage readings?

- Is there any significant advantage to using the XW MPPT controller instead of another company's MPPT controller?

thanks

Solar Guppy

Re: Some Xantrex XW questions

stephendv wrote: »

Have some questions about the XW series which isn't answered in the tech specs on their site.

- Continuous output power is rated at 4500VA. Most other inverters give a range of output powers based on the temperature. E.g. 4000VA at 25C and 3500VA at 40C. Anyone know what the ratings for the XW are (or is it really 4500VA no matter the temperature?)

- Search mode consumption is given as < 7W. Is this the no-load consumption?

- Can you monitor the inverter with a PC? and are there any free programmer API's available to write your own programs for it?

- The linklight battery monitors seem to have an input voltage range of 0 to 35V, what are you supposed to use for the 48V XW systems?

- If you do use a Xantrex battery monitor, does the XW then take it's SoC readings from the monitor instead of it's own simple voltage readings?

- Is there any significant advantage to using the XW MPPT controller instead of another company's MPPT controller?

thanks

• The XW series is fan cooled and has no de-rating to 45C ambient
• 7 Watts is the standby value, small loads is about 25-30 watts idle
• Yes, XW-Config with the USB-Can dongle can do monitoring, nothing free but Xantrex provides the specification in the Xanbus ( modbus over CAN )
• Battery monitors have no interaction with the XW
• Using the XW-Mppt, more information is available from the SCP, performance wise, in configurations where the Array voltage and Battery voltage have large differences, a Mppt Controller like the MorningStar Mppt is a better efficiency

Dave Angelini

Re: Some Xantrex XW questions

The one thing I noticed about the XW over the SW is how well the convection cooling works. The SW's went from input air left to exhast right. With an XW the heat rises from cool input at the bottom to exhaust at the top.

Off-grid a 1500 watt load use to cycle the the SW fan in the summer quite often.
On cooler days the XW hardly uses the fan. I do not see any reason not to use the xwcc. you'd give up a quite a bit with multiple cc's. A few percent better efficiency is useless offgrid in my opinion.

The xw config software can do basic monitoring for free but nothing like what you would see at SG's site.

When you look at other inverters output compare the time that they can surge for as this has always been the SW and now XW's strongest advantage. If you have big motors you will not have big problems with these models. The other strong point is grid or gen support. It always amazes me to see a little 2kw honda charging a 48v 1000ah battery and flawlessly thru a deep well pump cycling.

If you are looking now also consider that the xw line may have something new to anounce later this year.