Help with room please....

Well the best way would be to get a couple grows under your belt. I would go ahead and just use the pantry for a couple complete grows to see how you do. It would be a shame to have problems with a huge setup like you are talkin about doing on your first try. And never assume that your neighbor can be trusted whether he smokes or not.

ya for sure, i wasn't saying that I trust the neighbor. I TRUST NO ONE!!! lol
I have grown one other time, and it was pretty successful, so I have a little experience. The first grow was 30 plants on a top drip system. I have done some research since then, but everyone has a preference and I like hearing peoples ideas. I am confident that I will be ok using the room. I am just having a hard time having all of these lights and not putting them to use!!! I was thinking of doing a sog grow, How many lights do you guys think would be sufficient for the grow area? Any reasons against a sog? Input please!

8kW grow? Ballsy indeed.

Many dont subscribe to the idea that your light bill throws up a huge red flag....but 8kW is a damn lot to pay for. Nearly 3000 kilowatt hours per month even if all on 12/12 not taking into account anything else youll need to make it work. Not conducive to wanting to "stick within a reasonable price range" But hey, it pays for itself, eh?

8000 watts is overkill even if you planned to stuff that whole 12X12 area solid with plants, lol. Maybe go 8X8 and use 4 lamps? One over each 4x4 stage of flowering for perpetuality. Use that MH in your veg/mum/clone room to keep em coming....

I didn't think i would need all 8 but I got a smokin' deal on them so I couldn't pass it up. I was going to put the MH in the veg room, but I heard that fluorescent is enough for clones. Will the clones do a lot better with the MH or will it be a waste of 1000W of energy? How many plants would go in each 4 x 4 area without over crowding them? Sorry for all the noob q's!

Yeah, you can use fluoro if you get serious about it and stack some t5 in there. I would just use the MH if you already have it because a nice 8 bulb 4 foot t5 is going to run you at least 300 more bucks. Throw the MH in there and keep its distance, especially soon after cloning.

As for plants per square foot the answer is flexible. If number of plants isnt a concern for you and you want to SOG, you can get away with 4 per square foot with good air circ. But thats 256 plants in your flower room alone.

If it were me, I would go with 1 or 2 per square foot but I'm still a soil guy.

it dawned on me that if you bought those ballasts and bulbs at a great price most likely they are used

shouldnt be a problem for the ballasts, but bulbs decrease in efficiency a great deal after a certain point in their lives.

I would either bite it and replace the bulbs youre planning on using, or get a lux meter and make sure youre still getting your watts worth out of them