Cool thanks guys for some input.
FYI guys I planned on putting some netting around the plants and post to support the stems with this many plants in one location). Obviously, I'll have a dehumidifier, fans, intake, exhaust, vents, ect...I'm going with the works. I'm going to spend 3000-5000 bucks total on my rooms (collectively). Because of how I'll have the humidity in check and I'll have proper air flow, intake, and exhaust, I thought I could possibly put this many plants in one area. Oh and I think I forgot to mention each of these hydro setup will be housed in their own 8x8 or bigger room. It will actually be a room they are housed in (not a tiny hydrohut, closet, or drawer). So they will be in a nice drywall enclosed room with good ventilation, Insulation (that's a maybe depending on how cold/hot the basement gets) and each room will have a dehumidifier or an ac unit (once again depending on temps).
You think an 8x8 grow space would be fine for 24 2-3 footers? Yeah I was going to do 2 6x6 hydro setups in two 8x8 (or bigger rooms). Or should I do 5 plants (spaced 1.2 feet from each other for a total of 20 plants in that 6x6 space)? One vegging and one flower room. I was going to set the plants all 1 foot away from each other (left to right each plant would be 1 foot from each other).
So to harp back to my original question you think 1200Ws (2x600w HPS lights) would provide enought lighting for this system? Or should I scale down the amount of plants to like 18-20?
Heres a drawing of what I had in mind. Obviously I'm still in the planning stages.
HTG sells something simular to what I'm going to hand build (they use a Fence post it seems) and theirs has 60 holes for net pots (obviously this is way too many and you'd have to do tiny ass plants) and their plants are only spaced 6 inches from each other. I want to space my netpots double that distance.
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=53662