iStore installer, Melbourne’s south-east.

Because of the rebate, mostly. Of everything we fit, the iStore is the one the VEU rebate stretches furthest, which is what brings it to $2,150 installed. It's a solid R290 platform with the PV diverter and the app built in, and for a house pulling out an old electric tank it's the one that makes the numbers work. Where you're staying long-term and cold-morning recovery matters to you more than the upfront rebate, we'd point you at a Reclaim instead, and we'll say so plainly.

The iStore runs off a normal power point. If there's one within 2 m of your existing system we just use it and there's nothing extra. If there isn't: no circuit there, or the point's too far away, an electrician has to run one, and that's a $350 add. We check for it at the quote so it's never a surprise on install day.

Sized right, yes. The 180 L on a 2.5 kW compressor suits a couple or an apartment; the 270 L on a 4 kW is our most-fitted unit and covers a family of three or four, with enough output to have it back before the evening run. We size it to how many of you actually shower, not to the biggest tank on the shelf.

It's where the iStore is at its best. The PV diverter is built in, so the compressor runs on the surplus your panels are exporting for a few cents rather than pulling off the grid. Time the heat-up to the middle of the day through the app and you're heating water on power you'd otherwise have sold back cheap. No extra kit to buy, it's part of the unit.

6-year cylinder + 3-year compressor + 6-year on our workmanship. The first two are iStore's, handled through their Sydney office directly with you if you ever need to claim; the last is ours and covers the install: the plumbing, the base, the tempering valve, the things that are our fault if they go wrong. Parts come through iStore's Melbourne distributor, so a replacement isn't a wait on a container.

iStore is an Australian company out of Sydney and the units are built in China to AS/NZS standards, we'll tell you that straight rather than dress it up. R290 is a natural refrigerant with a fraction of the environmental number of the older gases, it runs a high COP so it's cheap on power, and it's been in fridges for years. Nothing to lose sleep over.