DIYer Turns Hundreds Of Disposable Vapes Into A House-Powering Battery Wall

On the whole, there isn't much one can do with a disposable vape once it's all used up; once you're done, they're just supposed to go into the garbage. Unfortunately, this means that not only can these vapes have a negative impact on PCs and gaming consoles, as well as the human body, but they also harm the environment, too. But that doesn't have to always be the case: one DIYer managed to find a use for these single-use vapes even after they fulfilled their sole advertised purpose.

YouTuber Chris Doel managed to pull off something pretty remarkable with 500 used disposable vapes: power an entire house. Obviously, this seems a daunting task on paper, and in practice, it took a lot to pull off. He had to take the battery capacity of each vape into account, as well as each vape's ability to contribute to the project on an individual electrical level.

The usable vapes were collected, taken apart, and their cells were collected into modules of nine. All of the modules were connected to essentially form a wall and were tested for electrical flow as a unit before being attached to an inverter and used to first power their workshop and then their house for brief periods. All in all, this feat is something to marvel at. It may not be much, but it is a valiant effort to make even a small dent in some of the vape waste the world is currently drowning in.

As cool and commendable as this house-powering experiment turned out to be, it really shouldn't be replicated. It goes without saying that there are various dangers that can stem from attempting this yourself, especially if you're unfamiliar with electronics and batteries. There's also the danger of cracking open vape batteries, which can prove flammable or otherwise hazardous.

No matter how you look at it, disposable vape waste is nothing to take lightly. Per the United States Public Interest Research Group, Americans threw away roughly 5.7 disposable vapes or e-cigarettes per second in 2023, amounting to approximately 500,000 vapes thrown away per day that year. Waste360 notes that disposable vapes have become major fire hazards for recycling centers, too, with nearly 3,000 fires in the U.S. and Canada's recycling and waste facilities occurring over the course of 2024. Clearly, something needs to be done about these vapes beyond the health risks they pose when used.

Chris Doel's experiment is evidence that there's more for the technology in these vapes to offer, and that it should be capitalized on so they don't continue to cause fires or clog up landfills to harm the planet. A lot can happen to disposable batteries once we're done with them, so we should do our part to send them on the greenest path possible.