Hi,
Out of combat, you still need to equip a wand as weapon to use it; it's boring since , out of combat, you have to:
-desquip main weapon
- put wand
- use wand
- desequip wand
-reequip main weapon.
I would also stress that using the wands in combat is very hard for those classes who use a weapon (... like everyone except sorcerers and psyonicists in my style of play) but I guess that's done for balance reason.
But outside of combat, it's just a chore, nothing else.