Taking the plunge. Just bought the Hydrofarm Quantuum PAR meter. Apparently it's a handle-with- care, not very hardy piece of handiwork but measurements are accurate enough for my purposes. It has a problem with the display freezing, but the fix is easy, and logical. Why would I make this purchase instead of just watching my plants? It's fairly cheap, and not knowing the PAR values of these floods I'm using is driving me crazy. Oh yes, it would be nice to feel terribly smug about using these inexpensive, convenient lamps for my orchids, knowing that I'm saving hundreds of dollars. On the other hand, if it's not good news, I'll have a better handle on the next step. Knowledge is power.

In case anyone is interested in what seems to me a prartically oriented info site on LEDs, I've been using this one a lot. I went back to it this morning to see what else I could pick up, and it answered a question that I wasn't smart enough to ask a few weeks ago. This link is to only one article (How to Compare Grow Lights). There are others that also are interesting and informativeFluence by Osram

Also, here is light meter review and comparison of three most used, low-end to high-end. LED Grow Light Guide. For what it's worth.