What used switchgear is actually worth

Plate 01

There are only two floors under a price

A used switchgear line-up has exactly two possible values, and the higher one wins. The first is resale value: somebody needs that make, model and rating as a working assembly, either as a spare for an identical installation or as the cheapest path to added capacity. The second is recovery value: the copper bus, the aluminum, the steel enclosure and the scrap content of the breakers, priced against the day's commodity market and the cost of processing.

Almost all of the disagreement between sellers and buyers comes from the seller pricing a line-up against the first floor while the buyer is pricing it against the second. A 1970s 5 kV line-up with obsolete air magnetic breakers and a cracked bushing is a copper transaction, and it is worth real money as a copper transaction. A 2015 vacuum-breaker line-up with a NETA report is a resale transaction and can be worth several times the metal.

When you ask what your gear is worth, you are really asking which of those two markets it lands in. The nameplate answers most of that question before anyone visits the site.

Plate 02

The five nameplate facts that move the number

Voltage class comes first. Low-voltage switchboards and 480 V switchgear have a deep, active resale market because there are hundreds of thousands of comparable installations. Medium-voltage gear at 5 kV and 15 kV has a thinner but higher-value market: fewer buyers, but the ones who exist need specific models badly enough to pay for them.

Interrupting rating and bus ampacity come next, because they determine what the gear can be reused for. A 3000 A main bus with 65 kA interrupting capacity fits far more replacement scenarios than an 800 A bus at 22 kA.

Manufacturer and model line matter more than most sellers expect. Certain discontinued lines have a permanent aftermarket because thousands of installations still run them and the factory no longer supplies parts. Obsolete does not mean worthless — it frequently means the opposite.

Breaker type is the fourth fact. Drawout vacuum and modern insulated-case breakers carry independent resale value and are often the most valuable single items in a line-up. Fixed-mounted or air-magnetic breakers usually do not.

Finally, the year of manufacture and the service history. A 1998 line-up that has been maintained and tested is a better asset than a 2008 line-up that sat in a wet vault. Anything that has taken a fault or been submerged drops straight to recovery value, and it is better for everyone if that is established before a crew mobilizes.

Plate 03

What gets subtracted

The offer you receive is net of the work required to take the gear out. That includes the electrician time to isolate and verify de-energization, the teardown labor to break a line-up into shippable sections, rigging, any structural obstacles between the gear and a truck, and the freight itself.

This is why two identical line-ups in two different buildings get different offers. Gear on a loading-dock-level slab with a clear path is cheap to remove. The same gear in a sub-basement, behind a door that has to come off its frame, up a stair with a turn in it, carries several thousand dollars of additional labor that has to come out of the purchase price.

The honest version of a valuation conversation includes that subtraction explicitly. When we send a written offer we state the removal scope alongside the number, so you can see what you are being paid for the equipment and what you are being relieved of in labor and liability.

Plate 04

What to send for a real number

Photographs of the nameplate on every section, wide shots showing the full line-up and the room around it, a photo of the path from the gear to the nearest dock or exterior door, and any test reports you have. That package is enough to price most line-ups within a few hours without anybody flying anywhere.

If you have a single-line diagram, send it. It resolves ratings, sequence and what feeds what faster than any set of photographs, and it tells a buyer immediately whether the line-up can be sold as a functional assembly or has to be split.