15.5×6.5×7.5 grow room advice needed.

1000 watts of HPS for a 5x5 if it's a vented hood is a little on the skimpy side actually. It can be done but 1000 watts better fills a 4x5 or 4x4 area with HID.

25 square foot in a 5x5. 1000 watts / 25 square feet = 40 watts per square. Not exactly smashing it. I've seen people run HID setups up in to the 60-65 watt per square range for bloom or even higher.

LED is a different story. It depends on what light you go with but you can flower with higher quality led with as low as 25-35 watts per square. Cheaper 5 watt diode older style panels can be ran in the 35-50 watt range in bloom with good success. I currently bloom with platinum led panels at 47.125 watts per square and it may be a little on the overkill side. I'm currently in the process of replacing them with quantum panels from HLG. Those high efficiency led panels can be ran as low as 25-30 watts per square and bloom well with less cost and heat.

Veg is a different animal and can be done with as little as 15-20 watts per square depending on your lights as well. I'm actually vegging with only a little over 11 watts per square and having really good success using California Lightworks vegmaster 110's. I have 2 in a 4x4 for only 180 watts and it grows wall to wall nice size veg plants.
Quality leds are the only lights capable of vegging that efficiently. Even with T5's you're going to want 50% more power for that amount of space.

I put my clones in the corner of the veg tent. That's plenty of light for them. It doesn't have to be direct and intense.


LEDs save you money and pay for themselves in the long run but are more expensive to purchase.

These are the best for the money IMO right now. 5000k for veg 3000k for bloom. More parts in like next week. Get on email list. First order first send. This is 135-285 watts dimmable with industry best meanwell drivers and some of the highest quality newest design samsung leds. Passively cooled with no fans.
260W QB LED Kit

If you don't like kits they also sell prebuilt fixtures that are in stock for almost double price.

The other light I might recommend is the spectrum king.
400 Watt LED Grow Light | Buy 400W LED Lights | shop LED grow lights
It's spendy but a high end 1000 watt HPS with a quality hood and all the bells is $400+. This is only $700 and replaces that with only 480 watts. No new bulbs that are near $100 each every year a fixture either. Some of the highest output efficiency of any lights on the market.

 

Kinds are ok but IMO they are one of the most overpriced led lights out there next to black dog. Black dog may be the most overpriced but there are some really expensive ones out there. They're not necessarily that much better. Many of them are outdated designs at this point since the industry has moved so fast in the last 3 years. Many companies are still marketing lights that have been unchanged in design for 3 years and they're far behind some of the other stuff out there like cobs and quantum boards.

I don't run the spectrum king lights but I've watched a bunch of youtube reviews and tests on them. They are legit. The 480 watt sk can cover 4x4. I wouldn't stretch it further then that. That's already very low watts per square for flower. It's a little amazing it can ever be ran that low and put out good product but it does.

Don't underestimate the convenience of using a white based light either. The burple lights really bother some people. My wifes gets headaches from it. It's not the best work environment. White led's are much nicer to work in.

 

These were the lights to get about 6 months ago. On the expensive side but great stuff. IMO a much better choice then a kind panel. Don't be fooled by rated watts. Always look for the actual watt numbers when looking at led lights.
FRAMEWORK - Vero29 V7 Framework - Timber Grow Lights

 

Those are great but their watt per square foot numbers and cost are really high compared to the kit quantum board panels I linked earlier from HLG. Those are a little more then $1 a watt for the kits. The cob lights are about 50% higher price per watt and are sized to cost more per square foot to run.

40 watts per square with vero v7 cobs is a good amount for bloom. I wouldn't run them higher then that but you're definitely not going to be short on light. I'm running 47 with lower efficiency lights and like I said it's a little overkill. With cobs you can dim them so you can reduce it to whatever level is comfortable for your temps and room. There's potentiometers on the drivers you can turn down with a small screwdriver.

I was all about the cobs until the QB panels came around. From what I've seen they're similar light output for cheaper. They also have better penetration from the reviews I've read. It comes from the crazy amount of points of light on the QB boards. It takes 4 boards to make a 500+ watt 4x4 fixture with them. There's 304 individual led's on each board. Thats 1216 points of light compared to 1 for a standard HPS and 2 for a DE. The light scattering effect in a tent from that many leds is significant and results in increased penetration to the lower, side, and inner canopy compared to nearly all other lights. They perform best in small tents like that. HLG recommends lenses for open areas to concentrate the light more downward. They're like 20-$30 a board so pretty significant added cost. I don't have to worry about the lenses since I only bud in a small 4x4 it will contain the light scatter.

 

It was easier with HPS because the fixtures were very similar. You could compare one to another closely. With the varieties of led's on the market with various outputs and the deceptive way some are marketed with rated watts advertised up front and actual watts in fine print on page 3, different bands of light, ect. It makes it harder to make a decision. There still is some good rules of thumb you can look for. Most manufactures have recommended coverage areas for both flower and veg in the stats. Those are fairly reliable.

 

It's a little easier now. The knowledge is out there and people actually have experience growing with led. When I bought my first led lights almost 2 years ago the research and market wasn't at the level it is today. I could have done so much better for my money now. I have a 4x8 tent split into two 4x4 areas one veg one bloom. I have close to $2,100 worth of lights in there. I know it's crazy. Only 180 watts veg 770 bloom. I could do it for half price better today. My platinums and california lightworks lights grow great bud but they're quickly getting outdated and I want white lights. My eyes hurt.

I think people that recommend hps don't mind high electric bills and are used to managing the heat. The grams per watt that hps is capable of is simply way behind led now. Some led's like the cobs and QB panels are growing almost twice as many grams per watt in the same space. Unless you hate money that's a big deal.

2 years ago even most higher end leds were struggling to get very far ahead of 1 gram per watt. Now grows with 1.5-2 grams per watt are happening. For some reason you're a god though if you're able to grow 1 gram per watt with HPS. I don't see how people can't see that's not that efficient any more. Especially when you have to buy a new bulb every year.

People are always loyal to products that have served them well. There's no doubt especially DE hps lights perform very well for growing. If you do bother to factor in all costs associated and how many watts you're actually putting into each gram there's no comparison with high end led's now days. Anyone that tells you that hasn't grown with the right leds.

 

Know that you will have to have several high wattage lights to make that space produce. You want to use the majority of the space to flower. It takes much less space to clone and veg. During flower each plant needs even coverage of high wattage/high quality flower light with light and plant being able to be as close as possible and also allowing each plant plenty of space to spread so light can penetrate the canopy and develop out the buds below the tops. Crowding them up just because you have space just shades out development and kills your weight. But don't think you can flower 10 plant with 1 lamp and get any kind of a return. We use 1000 watt HPS lamps for flowering and only flower 2 plants per lamp. We get the most per plant that way. But it's definitely about light and not about space. Best of luck with it.. TWW

 

How much weed do you want to produce is also a question for you? You can roughly yield 1-1 1/2 pounds per 4x4 area every 2 1/2 months. You're not a commercial grow op so what are you trying to do? Obviously you could cut the room into a 2/3rds flower 1/3rd veg area and fill that large budding room with lights. It's going to be a lot of cost and work. What are your actual goals? To grow as much weed as you can in that space no matter the electric cost or work? You can easily grow way too much weed for yourself and friends in a 5x5 flower area and it won't be a huge amount of work or electric bill.

 

I would say that if you're good at training you can smash the yield with 2 plants under 1000 watt. There's no perfect plant count it always depends on how well you train for good penetration and coverage.

Some people would put 4 plants under 1000 watts, some would put 6, some put 50. Each method can have a good yield if the person doing it knows what they're doing. I've increased my yield a lot by growing larger plants. My best harvests so far are larger plants and lower plant counts. I've never tried sea of green because the plant counts make the penalties high. I'm actually growing legally with my low plant count and large plants.

 

The amount of people getting over 2 pounds per 1000 watt light is not that large. That is commercial grow hydro expert level basically. 500 grams each plant for 2 plants under 1000 watt hps... good luck.

 

Depending on your location and rates $200 per month is around 3K total watts including all fans, pump, ac, ect.

With HPS it takes roughly 2 600 watt lights to cover a 5x5 decently. That electric budget would only allow you to outfit 2 25 square foot approx areas with bud light and have a decent veg spot. That can easily yield you 5 pounds with the right routine and lights. I've seen 3 pounds out of a 5x5.