Forget the Tesla Powerwall, this Engineer Used 500 Disposable Vapes to Build His Own Version

A peaceful workshop in the English countryside has gone off the grid, using the same plastic tubes that end up on every sidewalk – those disposable vapes you see littered all over the place. Chris Doel, a 29-year-old engineer who enjoys getting his hands dirty among the solder fumes and 3D printers, believed the world was throwing away millions of perfectly good batteries simply because. So the guy saved 500 of them, arranged them like soldiers/dolls, and somehow wired them all to a wall, which now powers his kettle, microwave, and editing system.

Let’s start with the garbage tip, because each of those vapes has a lithium cell the size of an AA battery. To liberate the cell, remove the bottom, dig out the insides, and cut two little wires. Chris repeated this 600 times to the music of his favorite podcasts. Half of the batteries collapsed like a dead phone, and the little circuit board within continues to consume power long after the last toke. He devised a technique that effectively “smokes” each vape with an old medical air pump. If the lights flash, the subject is still alive. If there are no lights, enter the skip.

The good cells are installed on a small homemade tester that charges them to 4.20 volts and tells you exactly how much capacity is remaining in watt hours. Chris then jots down the number on each wrapper using a Sharpie before storing them all in ice trays like rare coins. Only larger 5 Wh cells make the cut; thin 1.8 Wh cells aren’t worth bothering with.


You get nine cells clicking into a 3D printed brick, with copper tape wrapping around the top like a shiny tiny hat and nickel strips bridging the bottom. Flip the brick, solder the opposite side, and repeat 54 times. The bricks are then linked to aluminum rails in the same way that Lego bricks are, with the exception that this lot delivers 50 volts if you do it wrong.

There are 14 rows of 504 cells, with a large fuse in the center to prevent things from becoming too hairy if Chris mistakenly plugs in the arc welder. A faulty scooter BMS monitors each row to ensure that everything runs well. It weighs 38 kg and would cost £2,500 if you bought the cells separately. Chris, on the other hand, simply placed his time and a painful wrist on the tab. Finally, connect everything to a 3kW inverter the size of a shoebox. Flip the breaker that turns off the mains. The lights remain on, the fan continues to whirl, the microwave beeps, and the kettle boils in 93 seconds flat. Chris edits the finished film on his computer while drinking only yesterday’s trash.


The figures tell the story: this wall holds a whopping 2.52 KWh. Chris’s residence consumes an eye-watering 6 KWh per day, so the vape wall can keep him in the dark for a little over 8 hours or three full days if he only uses the workshop. At night, when power is almost free, he tops up when he can, and during the day, he could really make the most of it by slapping some solar panels on the roof and disconnecting himself from the grid permanently.

Stand back and the wall doesn’t look out of place – all grey and purposeful, with a few warning signs emblazoned on it, but it’s only when you look closer that the sheer absurdity hits you – all those glowing rectangles that were once squashed into some teenager’s pocket, reeking of blue raspberry and destined for the trash.


Chris does the same thing every time he finishes creating a new one: he returns the house to the grid, unplugs the vape wall, and then begins sketching out his next crazy scheme. The cells remain charged, patiently waiting for the day he installs solar panels or the next vape ban, which will render them obsolete. Even then, the vapes had already triumphed. They simply needed someone stubborn enough to give them a new lease of life, and Chris was the man for the job; all it took was some gammy soldering to make them usable again.
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