Keep Above
Buy or hire the generator
A generator is bought for readiness or hired for the occasion, and the two shapes cost very differently. This page counts owning — price, upkeep, eventual sale — against hiring per occasion, over the same years and uses a year. Each way lands on a cost per year and per use; the break-even uses a year is stated as a fact, and no winner is declared.
Not counted while this is $0
After 5 years
Delivery, membership, deposits — not counted while $0
Put in what buying one would cost, and what one hire would cost. Nothing here is read from your accounts, and nothing is saved.
| Owning | Hiring | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid up front | — | — |
| Value lost | — | — |
| Hire fees | — | — |
| Other costs | — | — |
| Total over 5 years | — | — |
| Cost a year | — | — |
| Cost a use | — | — |
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
About this calculator
What counts as upkeep for a generator?
What a year of ownership would take whether or not it runs — a service, oil, keeping fuel fresh or drained, and storage. One yearly figure in the box; $0 means it isn't counted.
What would one hire include here?
What one occasion would cost door to door — the hire rate for the period you'd actually take it, delivery if it's heavy enough to need it, and fuel where the depot charges for it. Yearly costs belong in the extras box; refundable bonds stay out.
What is the crossing point?
The uses a year at which the two totals would match, over the years you set — a position in the arithmetic, nothing more. When one side's structure makes a match impossible (owning nets to nothing, or hiring's fixed extras alone pass owning's total), the page says so instead of printing a number.