He has a point, but there is a thing you can do to offset some of this: read all of the comments. Plenty of times there will be someone in the comments pointing out what's wrong in the videos.
The problem with Lithium Ion installations of any size is that the batteries are inherently dangerous and mistakes can easily set you back more than you saved on the whole thing. Unlike say your car where as long as you stay away from suspension, brakes and steering the worst that could happen is that you end up stranded by the road side.
Another issue is that when it goes wrong with Lithium Ion it can go wrong fast and it isn't easy, or sometimes even possible, to stop a thermal runaway once it gets going, especially with densely packed cells, besides the fact that you likely won't be watching your batteries 24x7.
There are some people on youtube that advocate for extremely unsafe practices (Jehu Garcia, for instance) and that have a huge following, so Will Prowse is certainly not the worst that you could run into there. It would also be good if he indicated more clearly what his sponsorship relations are and how that relates to the advice that he is giving, quite a few of his videos feel like thinly disguised ads.
very much with you and GP on this. the route I personally take is to learn with small trials and error of what comments and advise is good and what is silly or outright dangerous. Places I frequent for such advise though aren't YT videos but forums where it's easy for others to call out silly ideas (which isn't always the case on YT). YT is at best a gateway to deeper content such as explosion-charts, repair and maintenance manuals, etc. I think batteries here are not too different than breaks, steering or suspension (all components I've grown comfortable to touch although not on my very first DYI project but years into messing and learning about the same vehicle).
It's clear that Will has rubbed you the wrong way by his responses in this thread, but when you call out someone's professional conduct linked to their business in public forum words matter.
Lead generation into Amazon affiliate links are not a sponsorships.
His business makes money off of affiliate links, not sponsorships. There is a difference. Both could carry a bias, but a sponsorship is significantly more suspect than an Amazon affiliate program. For another example, see Wirecutter, also funded by affiliate links, but (until recently post NYT buy out issues) a pretty respected review site. Personally, I generally wouldn't buy anything off the recommendation of a YouTube sponsorship. I would consider buying something that had an affiliate link.
Feel free to let me know if I missed a sponsorship disclaimer.
Here is the disclaimer his website.
Prowse Publications LLC (www.mobile-solarpower.com) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,
an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com
I make a commission for sales made through affiliate links posted on this website
The problem with Lithium Ion installations of any size is that the batteries are inherently dangerous and mistakes can easily set you back more than you saved on the whole thing. Unlike say your car where as long as you stay away from suspension, brakes and steering the worst that could happen is that you end up stranded by the road side.
Another issue is that when it goes wrong with Lithium Ion it can go wrong fast and it isn't easy, or sometimes even possible, to stop a thermal runaway once it gets going, especially with densely packed cells, besides the fact that you likely won't be watching your batteries 24x7.
There are some people on youtube that advocate for extremely unsafe practices (Jehu Garcia, for instance) and that have a huge following, so Will Prowse is certainly not the worst that you could run into there. It would also be good if he indicated more clearly what his sponsorship relations are and how that relates to the advice that he is giving, quite a few of his videos feel like thinly disguised ads.