Ownership Cost

What this calculator does

An upfront repair comparison answers what you would spend today. Ownership cost asks how your chosen annual expenses change the picture over several years. This calculator compares keeping an existing appliance with buying a replacement, using a horizon and annual amounts you enter yourself.

It is useful when you have a repair quote, a complete replacement offer and a defensible basis for energy or maintenance assumptions. The year-by-year table helps you see how a difference builds over time. Both options are modeled as operating throughout the selected period, so use several scenarios when continued service is uncertain.

How to use it

1. Choose a comparison horizon from one to thirty whole years. The initial five-year value is an editable planning period. Choose a period that fits your decision and rerun a shorter period to see how sensitive the result is.
2. For keeping the appliance, enter the immediate repair cost you will pay after confirmed coverage. Enter your annual allowance for future repairs and maintenance separately. Use your own service records, a service agreement or an explicitly chosen planning assumption.
3. Enter the old appliance's annual operating cost. You can build an electricity estimate with the Energy Cost calculator using a measured consumption figure or an applicable energy label and your own rate. Include other operating costs only when you can support them and explain the scope consistently.
4. For replacement, enter the appliance price and delivery or installation charges. Include relevant tax and removal costs in the appropriate upfront totals. Use a written offer for the appliance and the services it requires.
5. Enter the new appliance's annual maintenance allowance and annual operating cost. Keep the basis comparable: the same electricity rate, usage pattern and included services for both options.
6. Calculate the scenario. Read the final totals and year-by-year table, then change one uncertain input at a time. Print or copy the result together with your assumptions so you can reconstruct the comparison later.

Worked example

Illustrative numbers only, not actual prices, energy bills or failure forecasts. Model three years. Keeping starts with a $200 repair, plus $60 annual maintenance and $100 annual operating cost. Replacement starts with an $800 purchase and $100 installation, plus $20 annual maintenance and $70 annual operating cost.

Keeping totals $680: $200 + 3 × ($60 + $100). Replacement totals $1,170: $800 + $100 + 3 × ($20 + $70). Keeping is $490 lower in this particular three-year scenario.

Year zero shows $200 versus $900 because annual costs have not yet accumulated. The replacement has lower annual spending in the example but starts with a larger purchase. Try a higher keeping allowance or a different horizon to explore your own uncertainty, while retaining a realistic basis for every changed amount.

How the math works

Keep total at year N = immediate repair + N × (old annual maintenance and repairs + old annual operating cost). Replace total at year N = purchase + installation + N × (new annual maintenance and repairs + new annual operating cost). The table applies the same formula to every whole year from zero through your horizon.

Annual figures remain constant throughout the scenario. The model excludes inflation, borrowing costs, discounting, resale value and any expense you leave out. It also assumes both appliances remain usable for the entire period. Those are calculation boundaries rather than predictions about either product.

Tips for a better decision

• Keep maintenance and energy in separate fields so changes remain easy to understand.
• Use a shorter and longer horizon instead of treating the default as remaining appliance life.
• Check whether an annual service plan already covers costs that you have included elsewhere.
• Discuss uncertainty in the diagnosed problem with the technician before relying on a single repair scenario.

Frequently asked questions

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