What is my old DG set worth?
Eight things decide the number, and only two of them are the ones sellers usually lead with. Here is how we work it out — and why we will not print a price list.
What moves the number
Eight drivers, in the order they matter
Rating and make set the bracket. Everything after that decides where in the bracket your set lands — and the spread between a well-kept machine and a neglected one of the same age and rating is far wider than most sellers expect.
- 1
Rating in kVA
Sets the bracket before anything else does. Demand in the used market is deepest between roughly 62.5 and 250 kVA, because that is where most Indian commercial and light-industrial loads sit — a set in that range usually sells faster than a larger one in better condition.
- 2
Make and engine model
Cummins and Kirloskar hold value best here, mostly because parts and service are available everywhere. A rarer make is not worth less as a machine, but it is worth less as an asset, because the next buyer has to think about who will maintain it.
- 3
Year of engine manufacture
Read off the engine nameplate, not the invoice, and it does more than indicate age — it fixes the emission stage the set was certified to, which decides where it can lawfully be re-sited. Below a certain vintage that is not a discount but a full stop.
- 4
Verified running hours
What the meter reads, reconciled against a service log. An unverifiable number is discounted rather than believed, so a seller with a complete log book is genuinely paid more than one without — the records are worth money, not just reassurance.
- 5
Last overhaul, and what it actually covered
A top overhaul and a full overhaul are different transactions with different effects on value. Invoices and parts lists move the number; a verbal "it was done recently" does not, because we cannot pass that on to the next buyer either.
- 6
Alternator condition
Make, frame and the insulation reading on megger. A rewind is a substantial bill and it does not announce itself on a running set, so this is the check that most often separates two otherwise identical machines.
- 7
Enclosure, canopy and RECD
An acoustic set in sound condition is worth more than an open one because the buyer inherits the noise compliance with it. Rust at the base frame and degraded internal foam pull the other way. Whether an RECD is fitted matters in states that require one.
- 8
Lifting access
The one buyers never anticipate. A set at ground level with a clear approach is worth meaningfully more than the identical machine in a basement, on a terrace, or behind a wall that has to come down — because craneage and rigging come out of the same envelope.
The most common mistake
Tax depreciation is not market value
Sellers often arrive with a written-down value from their books and treat it as a floor, or as a ceiling. It is neither.
Written-down value is a tax construct: a fixed percentage applied on a schedule, indifferent to how the machine was actually used. It does not know your running hours, whether the set was overhauled last year, what its emission vintage permits, or what the used market is paying this quarter. We have valued well-maintained sets at a multiple of their book value, and we have had to tell owners of fully-depreciated-on-paper machines that the real number was lower still, because the engine predated the vintage that can lawfully be re-sited.
Use book value for your accounts and your capital-gains position — your accountant is right about that. Just do not use it to decide whether an offer is fair.
Stated bluntly
What reduces what we can pay
- No service records. An unverifiable history is priced as an unknown machine, because that is what the next buyer is being asked to accept.
- An hour meter that does not reconcile. Either it was replaced and nobody wrote it down, or the reading is not what it appears to be. Both are discounts.
- Long idle standing, unexercised. Damp windings, seized rings, perished hoses and a fuel system full of water. Time off-load is not the same as time saved.
- A difficult extraction. Basement installations, terrace sets, and anything needing a road closure or a wall removed. The rigging cost comes out of the same envelope as the price.
- An engine vintage that limits re-siting. This is not a discount so much as a restriction on who can lawfully buy it — see the legality guide.
- A rewound alternator with no documentation. A rewind done well is fine; a rewind nobody can evidence is a question mark on the most expensive component after the engine.
Valuation, answered
Frequently asked questions
Can you give me a price over the phone?
We can give you a range once we know the make, rating, engine year and hours, and we will tell you honestly how wide that range is until someone has seen the set. What we will not do is quote a firm figure sight unseen, because the two things that most often move the number — alternator condition and lifting access — cannot be assessed down a phone line.
Why do you not publish a price list per kVA?
Because it would be misleading in both directions. Two 250 kVA sets of the same age can be worth very different amounts depending on hours, overhaul history, alternator condition and how they come out of the building. A published table would either underquote good machines or overpromise on poor ones, and every seller would hold us to it before we had seen anything.
Is the depreciated book value what my set is worth?
No, and this is the most common mistake sellers bring us. Written-down value under the Income Tax Act is a tax construct on a fixed percentage schedule — it knows nothing about running hours, overhaul history, emission vintage or what the used market is currently paying. It is the right number for your accounts and the wrong number for a sale, in either direction.
Does a set with very low hours fetch a premium?
Usually yes, but not automatically. A standby set that has run 400 hours in twelve years may have sat unloaded and damp for most of that time, which brings its own problems — seized rings, degraded windings, perished hoses. Low hours plus evidence of regular exercise under load is the combination that genuinely commands a premium.
What paperwork increases what I get paid?
The service log book, original invoice or purchase order, the RECD certificate if one is fitted, and the current consent to operate. Each one removes a risk the buyer would otherwise price in, and the effect is real rather than cosmetic — a fully documented set is a straightforwardly better asset than an identical undocumented one.
How long does a valuation take?
A site inspection in Maharashtra is usually within three to five working days of your call, and the written valuation follows within two working days of that. Both are free and neither obliges you to sell to us — if you take our number to another buyer and do better, that is a fair outcome and it happens.
Free inspection, free written valuation, and no obligation to sell to us. Reply within 4 working hours. Engineered offer within 24 hours.