'I powered my entire West Midlands home using 500 discarded vapes. They're not as disposable as we think'

Electronics engineer Chris Doel, 26, stripped the lithium batteries from 500 binned vapes to create a single one large enough to run his entire house electrics for eight hours.

He wired the 2.5 kWh battery in to his home with an inverter and ran all electrical components entirely off-grid for eight hours, including the microwave, kettle, and all lighting.

Rechargeable batteries inspired him

Chris, who works for Jaguar Land Rover, got the idea after watching friends just bin the depleted vapes - despite them all containing rechargeable batteries.

He said: “Some of my mates were puffing on them. But as soon as they were empty, they’d have a little blinking light, and they’d throw it straight in the bin.

“The engineer in me was thinking ‘that is just absolutely ridiculous’.

Not really 'disposable'

“None of these components are disposable. They should never really be thrown just straight in the bin, so them being marketed as 'disposable' just seemed insane to me.”

Chris picked up several discarded vapes while volunteering at Leeds Festival and opened them up.

He said: “I opened it up and noticed it’s got a fully rechargeable battery in it, despite it being marketed as a single-use product.

Started by powering his laptop

“It seems the industry is pushing people to use these as single-use devices despite having reusable parts in them, just so you have to throw them away and buy more.”

Chris, from Warwickshire, set up a YouTube channel to highlight the problem and set about building ‘some pretty crazy stuff’.

In September 2024, he turned 35 recovered batteries into a portable charger capable of charging up phones and laptops - and then decided to 'go big'.

Chris added: “People just wanted to see bigger and better stuff, so I thought ‘surely as big as I can physically get is powering my entire house?’

'I can power my house for eight hours'

“There’s no argument we are throwing away super valuable stuff if I can literally power my entire house for eight hours with it.”

Chris went to his local vape shop in May 2025 and asked if they would donate some of their returns for his project - and walked away with bags containing 2,000 vapes.

He said: “It’s really awkward for them. They still have to pay for them to be recycled. They were extremely happy for me to just load up thousands of them in a big bag and walk away with them."

It took him six months to extract the rechargeable lithium batteries from the devices before he used a 3D-printed case to combine 500 cells wired in parallel into groups connected in series to make a massive battery pack.

Chris soldered a fuse between each of the former vape batteries to prevent his creation from short circuiting. 

He is now working on converting it to solar power - so he can recharge and run it constantly - or recharge overnight when electricity is cheaper.

His YouTube video documenting the process from creation to powering his house has already racked up more than 3.5 million views.

It became illegal for businesses in the UK to sell or supply single-use vapes in June.

However, waste companies report vapes are still causing rubbish fires despite the ban, with customers treating them as disposable.

Suez, which runs waste management sites, has seen 339 fires caused by exploding batteries this year, with the company suspecting the majority were caused by improperly discarded vapes.

Chris added: “I think the ban on disposable vapes, even though it’s not the best implementation, has definitely made an impact. There has certainly been a reduction in the waste.

“But I still think the devices themselves are built to be mass-consumed, and they’re still incredibly cheap.

“I think it would make more sense for it to be how it started it out, with bigger, more expensive vape kits - about £25 - and you buy the liquid and top it up and maintain it.

“These things last for years and years. A lot of people get five years of use out of them, and there is essentially no wastage, just little bottles with vape liquid in.

“Even now we have little vape pods you buy, they’re built of plastic - so we’re chucking tonnes of plastic into landfills.

“People are still throwing away the vapes themselves because they’re so cheap. We naturally assume they’re low value and we can just throw them in the bin, because it doesn’t impact our bank accounts that much.

“I think there needs to be a lot of reflection on the regulation side of things.”