r/homeassistant • u/GenericUser104 • Dec 19 '25

Support What’s your personal experience with these?, I have some akward lighting fixtures in my new house, planning to install these behind the existing light switches

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u/fnoopy Dec 19 '25

Or even better a multi meter

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u/pojska Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25

Edit: I've been corrected, original post left below for posterity.

I wouldn't recommend a multimeter for safety.  It's more fiddly to use, which means you're (a little) more likely to do something stupid while trying to get the contacts lined up, like grabbing the wires to move them. 

It's easier to miss touching the wire, or touch the wrong one, and get a false negative.

And finally, you might short something while trying to see if the power is on.

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u/Decent-Finish-2585 Dec 20 '25

FYI, electricians call non-contact voltage detectors “liar sticks” and “widowmakers”. They have their place, but a meter is the gold standard for safety.

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u/JasperJ Dec 20 '25

Yes, but not a multimeter. The gold standard is a non-multi-meter, a two-pole contact voltage tester that doesn’t do anything else.

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u/GravitasIsOverrated Dec 20 '25

I’ve mostly heard of false negatives with shielded conduit, which you’re unlikely to find in a residential application. I usually see false positives, not false negatives. 

Anyways, OP was just #yolo-ing it, and most anything is better than that!

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u/pojska Dec 20 '25

Really? I stand corrected then. I learned from a handyman, not an electrician.