Hi this is Amy from the altE Store. I'm here today with Will from Xantrex. Hi Amy,
it's good to be here today. Nice to have you. So we're going to talk about the
new inverter from Xantrex, the Freedom Xi. That's right, the Freedom Xi inverter
is new from Xantrex, and it's been on the market for only a few months, but already
it's had a great reception. The real thing to know about this inverter series is that
this is a true sine wave inverter, with a transfer switch built right in. So for applications
where you need the load to transfer from utility to battery power immediately, the automatic
transfer switch is built into this product. There's no need to buy a separate one.
Nice, so when the power goes out, it'll just switch right over and you probably won't even
need to reset your digital clocks. Yah, that's right. It's a nice fast transfer
switch for most applications, there won't be any interruption at all. In fact, if you
are watching TV or using your computer on a dark and stormy night, and the power goes
out, if you have a battery backup system, the transfer switch inside a Freedom Xi inverter
will immediately transfer that load. Excellent. So what makes the Freedom Xi so
unique? Xantrex has a very rigorous engineering testing methodology when we are
bringing a new product to the market, and one of the really unique things about the
Xantrex Xi inverter series, and a lot of the new products from Xantrex, is the level of
engineering testing and quality control that's gone into them. All of our products are created
and tested against the HALT standard. And HALT standard stands for Highly Accelerated
Life Testing. You wouldn't believe this but we actually call it the Shake and Bake test.
We put the product in series of chambers to test shock, vibration, we heat them up, we
cool them down, all while they are running on their full load. We even put them in a
salt fog chamber and inundate them with moist salty air, just to make sure they don't corrode.
So that's great for island living and marine applications. Yah, absolutely.
In fact the regulatory standard that these are tested against, UL458 includes an optional
supplement called the marine supplement, and very few products on the market have it. Many
of the Xantrex products have the UL458 plus the marine supplement. It makes it perfect
for marine applications, whether you are inland in fresh water, or you are in a salt water
environment. Right. So this is great for sailboats, for motor yachts, where ever
you need to go from your battery bank to an AC outlet. That's right. In fact an
RV application, or a marine application, what's really special about this unit is that it
completes the electrical system. The boat owner may already have a battery charge installed,
and may have spent a lot of time and energy considering that battery charger, and they
are very happy with it. But when it comes to the inverter system,. they don't want to
remove that battery charger for a full inverter/charger. With the Freedom Xi like this one, it has
the transfer switch, a True Sinewave inverter, a remote panel, and it's hardwireable. So
it completes the system the owner of the boat already started with that battery charger.
That's beautiful. So you mentioned the remote system. So it comes with the display
panel built right in, but that's removable. Absolutely. Right here you can see
it. And all of the controls for the inverter happen right here. It's very easy to use,
but, if during installation you'd like this remote panel somewhere else, then we include
a bezel kit, and also a communication cord. Now with this, you can mount this remote panel
elsewhere in the vehicle, elsewhere in the boat, and then the inverter itself can be
hidden away, where it's not underfoot, it's not in somebody's way. And for that, we've
got the hardwire. The hardwire input here, with these quick connect WAGO terminals, and
also the hardwire output. We make it really easy, really fast for installation. But with
the hardwire output, you don't just plug your loads into the GFCI outlet anymore. You can
send that to an inverter panel, or send that to another circuit, and electrify all of the
circuits in the boat or vehicle. Beautiful. And this is a really small unit, how many
watts can it handle? We have two units that are in this family, there's a 1000W True
Sinewave until, and there's a 2000W True Sinewave unit. In both cases, you have a 30A transfer
switch for pass thru, but the 2000W unit has a 20A GFCI, and the 1000W unit has a 15A GFCI.
They are both in the same size box, which is a nice low profile, easy to install design.
Right. It's not a big clunky where am I going to find space for this. This is a
nice compact size. So what voltage DC battery bank will this support? These are 12V
products, so a 12V nominal battery bank is really what these are used with. It's important
to talk about that DC voltage because there's a number of features built into the product
specifically to protect your battery system. One of the things to know is that the low
voltage disconnect is user selectable in this product. The default is 10.5, and that protects
the inverter from current spikes from the DC system. But for folks that want to take
care of their batteries, you can set that disconnect at higher voltage settings as well,
so that you can ensure that your batteries don't discharge too deeply, to get a longer
lifespan out of them. Right, so if you want to make sure that you don't get lower
than a 25% depth of discharge, you would set the low voltage disconnect to higher voltage.
That's right. And it'll give you a nice alarm to let you know that that voltage
is approaching. That's another upgrade on these units, we've made the alarm a pleasant
profile that gradually gets louder the longer it's on. Excellent. So, ok, so you've
got this alarm going off, alright, what if I know, it's off, I don't want to sleep with
this alarm going off. That's right, you can turn the alarm off pretty easily,
just by hitting the reset button here on the panel. But it is your indication that your
battery banks are reaching their low point. Excellent, that's great to know. So
we were talking about how easy this is to install. Tell me a bit more about the hardwire.
That's right. So on the AC input side, or on the AC output side, it's a very easy
terminal strip, with a little screw driver pushing against the lever, you can just put
your stripped conduit right in there and release. We provide you with these knockouts and strain
reliefs. But to make installation even easier, we've placed knockouts on the side of the
product as well as the front of the product. So if you want to have your AC connectors
go down the side of the unit, vs. out the front, then you can do that as well.
Very nice. And then the DC connects right to the back? Yes, that's right. In
fact, we've increased the size of the ground lug here to comply with the more stringent
marine standards. So you have your positive and negative lugs, and the ground lug here.
Excellent. And so is there anything else that makes this unique? There is
an interesting feature that's been built into this product that I think most people will
get some use from. Just behind this panel, is a terminal strip. And if you attach the
positive side of a simple 12V switch, you can control that unit with the flip of a switch
anywhere. That can be a simple illuminated rocker switch, or a push button switch, or
the ignition of a vehicle. So you control the unit very simply, on/off, from there.
Nice. So what kind of standby draw or consumption does this have? That's
right, all inverters will use a little bit of power, even if you are not using them.
And it's really important not to draw too much and waste those electrons that are being
stored in the battery bank. With some improvements, the Freedom Xi actually has a very efficient
standby power draw. For the first 24 hours, it's going to draw about 10W of power. But
after that, it will go into a sleep mode, and it'll draw less than 4mA. So in the end,
it's a very affordable and full featured product, it has the inverter, the control panel, hardwire,
and a transfer switch, all in one box. Nice. Alright and if you want to see more
detail and look at the specs, and the pricing for it, you can go to our website, just click
on this link right here, and it'll bring you right to the product page. And make sure to
subscribe to our altE Store channel, so we'll notify you when we've got new videos out.
And go to our website at altE Store.com, where we've been making renewable do able since 1999.