Power decay in the scrape off layer of Wendelstein 7 X Divertor Infrarot Plasma Plasmarandschicht Stellarator Thermografie Power decay Wendelstein 7 X divertor scrape off layer stellarator thermography wetted area In this work studies with respect to the exhaust problem were performed in the stellarator experiment Wendelstein 7 X with different target concepts and different magnetic field geometries. Different infrared cameras were used to study the heat flux from the plasma onto the PFC. In the first publication the limiter set up was used with a simpler magnetic topology in the plasma edge. The radial fall off of the parallel heat flux for inboard limiters in W7 X shows similar to inboard limiters in tokamaks two different radial fall off lengths a short (narrow) one characterizing the near SOL and a long (broad) characterizing the far SOL. For the far SOL the heating power and connection length have been identified as the main scaling parameters while for the near SOL the electron temperature close to the LCFS has been identified as the main scaling parameter. The two fall off lengths differ by a factor 10 and the found scalings for both regimes differ from known models and experimental scalings in tokamaks. A turbulent driven feature was discussed in the publication as a possible explanation for the behavior of the fall off length in W7 X. The gained information and data have been further used to support many other publications covering the symmetry of the heat loads the energy balance of the machine and seeding experiments. The heat exhaust in W7 X with an island divertor was studied in the second and third publication. Definitions of parameters such as peaking ...