The Backyard as an Energy Product: Outer Spaces and the Work of Making Decentralization Desirable

1. Guest Background

Jiake Liu approaches household energy through a business experience that initially seems some distance from electricity: selling outdoor furniture. The supplied guest background identifies him as a serial entrepreneur developing Outer Spaces, following Outer, a direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand that appeared on Shark Tank. This approximately 62-minute episode of The Futurists lists Brett King and Robert Tercek as hosts; Robert conducts the conversation with Liu.

According to Liu, Outer gave his team roughly eight years of thinking about American backyards and contact with tens of thousands of customers. He describes the business benefiting from pandemic-era demand for e-commerce and outdoor furniture, reaching what he calls a multihundred-million-dollar scale. The interview does not establish whether that figure means revenue, valuation or another business measure. Its more useful contribution is explaining the team's starting point: familiarity with how households imagine, purchase and use outdoor space.

Liu says Outer Spaces was developed inside Outer for almost two years before being spun out. He also reports announcing an $8 million pre-seed round in early October, about a month before recording. That places the discussion in an early venture-building context. His previous experience helps explain the consumer proposition, while the new energy product's performance, economics and operating arrangements require their own evidence.

2. What the Episode Covers

The interview begins with a question about the scale at which electricity systems can change. The host traces a movement from local generation toward centralized utilities and regulated regional monopolies. He then cites an American transmission shortfall: approximately 5,000 miles of long-distance, high-capacity lines needed annually against roughly 400 being built. These are the host's figures, used to frame the episode's alternative entry point: starting at the household end of the network.

Liu identifies the backyard as an asset that a homeowner can put to additional use. After correcting himself, he cites about 150 million American homes, including 90 million detached houses, with backyards at approximately 92 percent of those detached properties and an average yard of 6,000 square feet. He separately proposes a trillion square feet of residential outdoor space. The interview does not reconcile those quantities. He also acknowledges homeowners' association and local permitting constraints, qualifying the idea that homeowner control makes deployment straightforward.

Outer Spaces turns that thesis into a physical package. Solar panels form the roof of an outdoor structure, batteries sit within its deck, and the space above can become a living area, kitchen or office. Liu also mentions golf simulators, saunas and cold plunges. The package gives the household a reason to want the structure beyond its electricity output.

Construction receives substantial attention. Liu recalls an outdoor kitchen project taking around four months and involving two or three parties. He cites a home-renovation cost split of roughly two-thirds labor, without supplying independent support for that average. His proposed response uses ground screws at different heights to create a level foundation, followed by a modular aluminum deck. He reports assembling a 144-square-foot deck and pergola kit with two people in under five hours.

The battery requires additional engineering. Liu says an ordinary wall-mounted residential battery cannot simply be turned horizontally and fitted into a deck less than a foot thick. His team uses blade-format cells, a proprietary pack and battery management system, addressing flooding, vibration and installation. A roughly 100-pound battery is placed using a two-person carrying tool. His claim of tenfold installation convenience in labor hours comes without a comparative test method.

For OS1, Liu specifies storage starting around 15 kilowatt-hours. The 144-square-foot version carries six panels, rated around 2.3 kilowatts; a 288-square-foot version carries twelve, around 5 kilowatts. Assuming five hours of Los Angeles sunlight, he estimates daily production of approximately 11 and 25 kilowatt-hours. His comparison with a claimed 20-kilowatt-hour daily household baseline is conditional on loads such as vehicles and pools. He says the structure can operate independently or connect to the home's main panel for backup, while grid charging at cheaper times enables peak shaving even without solar.

3. Core Views: Reasoning, Examples, and Limits

The central proposition is that consumer adoption deserves as much design attention as the underlying energy equipment. Liu cites battery costs falling from approximately $1,000 to $100 per kilowatt-hour over about a decade, then argues that available technology still needs a more compelling purchase experience. His examples include concerns about rooftop work, appearance and large wall-mounted batteries. Moving equipment into a desirable outdoor space changes the household's comparison: the purchase may compete with a backyard renovation as well as other storage systems. That is a coherent product hypothesis. The interview supplies neither a representative study of those objections nor evidence that the package has already increased conversion.

The 5E framework, which Liu credits to co-founder Terry, makes that hypothesis explicit. Emotion sits over energy, environment, ease and equity: a household might value backup, additional usable space, simpler installation or expected property appreciation. Liu invokes an American Institute of Architects finding about outdoor living demand and suggests combining renovation and energy backup for something like the cost of one project. The reasoning recognizes several motivations that a narrow electricity-payback pitch misses. Its financial implications remain open. The episode provides no underlying survey, comparative construction budget or property valuation evidence. Liu's claimed five-to-ten-year energy payback range also lacks a complete calculation. The host's analogy of prepaying ten years of electricity is a way to describe the purchase, not a demonstrated return.

A second argument is that construction friction belongs inside the product problem. Liu's four-month kitchen experience explains the emphasis on prefabrication. Ground screws and modular components offer a specific response to site work and coordination. However, the under-five-hour example concerns a deck and pergola kit; it does not establish that permits, electrical work and grid connection are completed within that interval. The tenfold battery-installation claim similarly lacks a defined comparison. These boundaries matter because a fast assembly operation and a fast completed household project are different measures.

The battery design also complicates any suggestion that the venture merely bundles existing components. Liu describes the need for a thin pack, a dedicated management system and provisions for flooding and vibration. His preference for EV-grade LFP cells seeks to borrow scale from an established manufacturing market, but he explicitly says domestic cycling and current requirements need adaptation. The episode therefore supports a distinction between sourcing mature cells and validating a finished residential system. Claimed cost and reliability advantages remain propositions to test; no independent safety results are presented in the interview.

Ownership creates another dimension of decentralization. The host uses Base Power to show how geographically dispersed batteries can remain company-owned. Liu describes a power-plan subscription, but qualifies his recollection of a roughly ten-year term and approximately $1,000 upfront installation cost. Those numbers should illustrate his understanding of a model, not serve as a current quote. Outer Spaces, he says, offers purchase and financing, with several hundred dollars a month buying the battery and structure; leasing is still being developed. Asked what happens when a leased battery wears out, he refers generally to warranties and the relationship. The discussion leaves replacement responsibility unresolved. A distributed location alone says little about control, financial obligations or long-term service.

Supply chains connect those commercial choices to further uncertainty. Liu prefers China's mature cell production while acknowledging changing tariffs. He discusses a possible 30 percent federal benefit for leased batteries through 2032; the host raises Section 48E and prohibited-foreign-entity restrictions. Liu proposes American pack assembly using imported cells as a route toward qualification. The interview does not demonstrate that this route has secured eligibility. His assertion that the inverter discussed in connection with Fox ESS meets FCC requirements also comes without a model or supporting document. Equipment authorization and tax qualification require separate evidence.

At national scale, Liu frames AI competition through compute, data and power and argues that China's electricity infrastructure is stronger. The host emphasizes veto points in America's dispersed political authority and calls for a national grid initiative; Liu emphasizes self-reliance, household spending and backyard land. These are strategic interpretations, not proof that residential systems can replace transmission investment. Even the proposed backyard market needs clarification: the household counts, yard share, average area and trillion-square-foot total are not reconciled.

The final platform vision is best understood through the host's use of the adjacent possible. Liu imagines opt-in backyard drone delivery and charging, with software-controlled hours and compensation, while acknowledging privacy, noise and safety problems. Passenger aircraft, edge computing, distributed AI facilities and small reactors sit further out. The useful reasoning is sequential: establish valuable space and energy infrastructure, then investigate additional uses. Installing the first layer does not establish demand, compatibility or operational viability for the next.

4. Learning and Application

A household can use the interview to structure a decision before asking whether the package pays for itself. Start by identifying independent needs: a usable outdoor area, outage backup or lower electricity costs. Where both renovation and storage were already planned, obtain separate-project and integrated quotes. The 5E framework can help rank preferences, but expected appreciation and construction savings should remain unconfirmed until supported by relevant estimates. Enjoying a new space is a valid purchase motivation; it should have an explicit place in the decision rather than being counted as electricity savings.

Next, translate the energy claims into a household-specific model. The quoted 2.3 and 5 kilowatts describe array ratings. Fifteen kilowatt-hours describes storage capacity. The 11 and 25 kilowatt-hours per day are Liu's production estimates under a specified sunlight assumption. Collect actual consumption records, identify vehicle, pool and cooling loads, and ask the provider to explain expected local generation and backup operation. Storage capacity alone cannot establish daily generation, and a daily energy comparison does not establish that supply matches demand at every moment.

If peak shaving is the main objective, request a calculation using the applicable tariff and the household's consumption pattern. Distinguish value from shifting grid electricity from value attributed to solar production. Compare the full price, financing cost, maintenance and replacement arrangements before accepting a payback estimate. Liu's five-to-ten-year range and the host's ten-year prepayment analogy cannot settle that calculation. Likewise, a monthly payment in the hundreds needs a term and contractual conditions before it becomes a useful cost comparison.

The installation claims suggest practical questions for a proposal. Ask for a scope separating foundation work, structure assembly, battery placement, electrical installation, permission and interconnection. Establish which tasks the five-hour example includes. For the heavy battery inside the deck, request relevant safety documentation, an explanation of flood protection and a service-access plan. Concealment and easier handling do not establish product safety. When comparing purchase, financing and a prospective lease, identify the asset owner, maintenance payer, warranty boundaries and end-of-life replacement process. The episode's unanswered replacement question is a concrete contractual gap to close.

Product teams and investors can apply the same discipline to market and business-model assumptions. Reconcile the backyard statistics before estimating an addressable market, then distinguish nominal land area from sites that can actually accept the structure. Ask for evidence supporting any tax benefit used in a financial model. Treat American pack assembly as the proposed compliance approach described by Liu, and examine inverter authorization separately. Neither should become an assumed advantage solely because it was discussed confidently.

Finally, use the adjacent possible to organize experiments. A drone-node pilot would need voluntary participation, controlled access times, a defined landing or delivery location, charging compatibility and a response to noise, safety and privacy concerns. Compensation must then be tested against the inconvenience households accept. Larger aviation or computing uses require further evidence of their own. The immediate space-and-energy product should justify its purchase without relying on those future revenues; the broader vision can guide what to investigate next.

Source

• Original episode: The Futurists - EPS_356: Decentralized Power with Jiake Liu of Outer Spaces