EMF meters: worth the money or expensive placebo?

Right, I've been lurking on here for ages and finally got round to buying a proper EMF metre after reading through about fifty different threads. Spent £87 on a Trifield meter, which everyone reckons is the gold standard, but I'm genuinely wondering if I'm just measuring dodgy electrics in my flat rather than actual paranormal activity.

The bloke at the paranormal shop was very keen to sell me everything, which made me suspicious. Has anyone actually caught something on these things that wasn't just a faulty fridge or a badly shielded lamp? Or am I basically carrying around an expensive way to confirm that my council house is a electrical nightmare?

Keen to hear honest opinions before I drop another £200 on thermal imaging gear.

Mate, I've got three different EMF metres and I can tell you they're absolutely brilliant - for finding electrical problems. 😄 But paranormal activity? Never picked up anything that wasn't explained by the local 33kV power lines or someone's microwave. That said, they're still useful kit if you're investigating anywhere, just not as a standalone 'ghost detector' like some of these YouTube channels suggest.

Has anyone actually caught something on these things that wasn't just a faulty fridge or a badly shielded lamp?

Yes, actually. I got some interesting spikes in an old Victorian manor in Oxfordshire that didn't correlate with any known electrical source. But here's the thing - I brought in an electrician to double-check, and even he couldn't explain it. So either it was a ghost or it was some obscure electrical phenomenon. The EMF metre didn't tell me which.

Honestly, spend the money on a decent thermal camera instead. EMF metres are alright for ruling things out, but thermal imaging actually shows you something visual you can analyse afterwards. You can pick up a decent used one for £150-200 on eBay.

This is exactly why people don't take the paranormal seriously. We're out here spending eighty quid on kit to measure electromagnetic radiation as if ghosts are going to follow the laws of physics. Either believe in it or don't, but stop waving about gadgets like they're scientific instruments when most of us haven't got a clue what we're actually measuring.

The Trifield is decent quality though - solid build, reliable readings. If you're planning to do this regularly, it's not a waste. Just remember: baseline your investigation area first. Measure everything before you start looking for 'anomalies'. That's the difference between proper investigation and just waving a beeping box about like you're on Most Haunted.