I was going to chime into another thread but my post ended up being quite lengthy and I thought that would be rude. So I thought I’d post a new topic - so here goes:
I’ve been trying to educate myself on the best grow lights for my future grows. I’ve been trying to find time to read through a few of the threads, interesting reading. Working on one that started back in 2015. It has some great information as does most of the posts I read here.
Now when it comes to grow lights, efficiency is important and I’m all about using less watts for the best yeild at the best cost savings. And I have always been about saving money when I can. Which is exactly how I’ve started off, had to grab some lights quickly as my first grow was suddenly thrust upon me. If everything works out, this is my new and forever hobby and I plan to upgrade/expand - purchase or build another small tent, one veg and one flower. It’s going to be a little down the road so I want to make sure what I upgrade to is really worth the money I will spend. Might even go the route of building my own.
But from what I’ve gathered so far, coming from a layman in the field so to speak, aside from efficiency and the environmental conditions demanding specific actions and/or equipment, the most important thing (bottom line) for the quality of the bud and the amount of yield is the light quality itself. For the plant, from what I’ve learned, you don’t want to give it more than 1000 umols/sq meter/second without supplementing with CO2. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.
I watched a couple youtube videos of independent 
PPFD tests of the Light I purchased (I consider it to be one of the better in it’s class even though I haven’t seen it mentioned as often in what I’ve been reading as some of the others like Spider Farmer, ViparSpectra, and others) and the results have been in the ballpark of what the mfg’r provided with the light assembly. While one video’s test, performed at the same 12" the mfg’s test was performed at, and resulted in around the same results at the low end of the desired numbers, another video proclaimed they do all their tests to 1000 umols, and this “cheap” light I have performed very well at 9"" above the canopy (for the 1000 umols) instead of the 12" the mfg’s given PPFD test results. The video test determined my light would be do very well for a 3 sq. ft. grow space with the light dispersion at 9".
But now I also take into consideration that the mfg is advertising their product for a standard 2 X 2 grow tent, I mean, what tent vendor sells a 1.5 X 1.5 grow tent. So maybe they make their product just good enough to fall into the range (low end mind you) of 600 - 800 umols or 700 - 900 umols (I’ve seen both) and keep the cost low.
So with all this and back to my layman’s way of thinking, seems to me the most important part is the quality of that 1000 umols. If you covered your grow space with the correct amount of umols of light, wouldn’t the quality of the light be the main deciding factor?
So if I had a PPFD meter and found that I was weak on umols of light and added another of my “cheap” lights into the daisy chain that put my canopy at near 1000 umols throughout flower, and pulled around the same 300 watts (+, -) at the wall as the higher priced lights (which 3 of my “cheapo” light would be pulling}, and my board(s) had the full light spectrum including the far red, isn’t that more cost effictive to spend half as much overall on three “cheapo” lights? What am I missing here? My BluePoint tools worked just as good as my Snap-on and cost me less than half as much.
I was thinking of adding one more light to my daisy chain of two for my little 6.7 sq. ft. dyi grow tent with two little ladies inside, but since my two lights at 9" are adequate for 6 sq. ft. (per the test mentioned above) and even though might be a little on the shy side, I think It’ll be ok until my upgrade - I can use them in my Veg tent when/if I upgrade 
I’ve been keeping them at the mfg’s recommended 12" and even with my novice mistakes and the trauma I’ve put them through, my 2 girls have what I consider some nice tight solid buds going on!
So am I going down the wrong path - am I concentrating on the wrong thing? I have a trust problem these days, don’t seem to trust many mfg’s, local or foreign. Sucks. Having problems trusting reviews, youtube videos, some postings - seems like marketers have targeted all kinds of avenues these days, from social media sites, to youtubers, to on-line reviews written by reviewers on the take or by the mfg’rs themselves… or someone who’s being paid to promote their products in public forums for a little kickback.
But I want to concentrate on the light quality, diodes. I think I have more learning to do.
Maybe I should invest in a PPFD test meter? Test anything I buy, send back what doesn’t meet specs. Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent PPDF meter in a relatively reasonable price range?
Your thoughts and criticism is welcome (and expected). 
I love this forum!