I'm thinking of going with 4x4x8 grow room and was looking for some pointers on lighting , how many plants that can go in there, and anything else anyone might want 2 school me on.
I just went through the same process and learned a lot from trial and error. I'd say for that space I would not do more than 4 plants under a 400W MH as I tried 7 in the same room and they got really crowded and I got powdery mildew to boot because of the lack of airflow. One note of caution though if you are cloning and that is make sure that light is maybe 4 feet from the top of the plants as if you start at 2 feet above you will fry the little ones as they are not used to that power of light.
If you plan on just growing out plants and not doing a scrog or what not. A general rule that I like to use is 2 sq feet per plant. Allows for some extra light pen and room for your plants to grow out. All depends on how you want to grow.
4x4 I would suggest using a 600 watt HPS/MH. As a 600 watt can handle up to a 4x4 area. 5x5 and up you shoudl go with a 1000 watt.
So 8 plant MAX in 4x4 but suggest 4 and for the 4x4 area would suggest using a 600 watt hps/mh.
They do have dimmable light systems now to. you can run 600 watts or 400 watts. I would suggest one of these.
Go with 4 plants. Use 7 gal pots. Use 600-1000w. Power consumption difference is maybe $50. I have a 4x4x8 flowering right now and have had previous 4k room. Im using soil this run for simplicity and many other reasons. I would suggest soil if its your first run then step up to coco before into full hydro.