if you plan on doing hydro i cannot stress how important it is to have a nice clean work enviorment, this is a lot of work but has its rewards.
i personally prefer soil but theres alot of pro's and con's about them both.
if you plan on doing 1-4 plants a 4x4 room and a 600w light will do you justice, also start thinking enviormental control, plants enjoy temps in the 70's. your light is going to provide heat but if its pulling in cold air then you may have a issue with it being too cool for optimal growth. i had this issue in my basement, 65 was avg temp and though they grew they grew a bit slower than they could have, i got a fan/temp controller to maintain a nice 76 degree room i saw a nice difference in growth.
also if you are going to be growing it in a room thats hot you may not be able to cool the room sufficiently and would need either a intake hose ran from a cool place or an AC..AC's can get pricy so keep that in mind.
CO2 is talked about on here as if it is necessary and while it does give an improvemnt its not needed for a first time grow and i would suggest thinking about putting any kind of CO2 system on the "to do" list after you have worked out all the other kinks.
a simple humidifier can provide you with some humidity, 40-50% humidity is good for the entire grow, can get more technical but why bother imo..
there are some really nice tents out there that would provide you with not so stealth a grow but if its getting tucked away in a basement out of sight out of mind you may benifit from looking into a nice 4x8 tent with a divider in middle so you can expand later...or a nice 4x4 and expansion can include buying another tent...something for you to think about.
dont get sucked into the nutrient hype especially if you decide to go soil...a simple all purpose fertilizer and some quality soil should bring you through a entire grow with only having to add nutes once or twice, people think they need to feed every week and end up with assloads of problems by week 6 of flower...my theory is if its not broke dont fix it, so if the plant isnt showing you it is hungry dont add fertilizer. a green plant is a happy plant.
anyways i wont continue on, maybe some others can chime in on some things to think about and research. like someone was saying above keeping it simple is the best way to start.
Once again I want to say thank you for taking the time to write to me. I have been pouring through 100's of forum posts, videos and this is all I can think about. Not that I am thinking about rushing it as I stated but thinking about concealing it and how to keep the room as simple as possible.
I originally posted that I had 2 options. Grow in the basement behind a fake wall or in the 2nd floor master bedroom spare closet. I have decided, however I won't be 100% sure until I move in towards the end of September, to make the grow room in the closet upstairs because it runs adjacent to the laundry room. I will explain the setup below. Once I start building I will post pictures but once again that will not happen until September or October.
The closet is 5 foot by 5 foot, slightly bigger but for ease of explanation we will use those numbers. I am going to build a shelving wall 3 feet into the closet that can open, I will not explain the details just refer to the video I posted earlier in the thread. Behind that wall I will gut the 2 x 2 area of any carpet.I will lay down matting and cover the walls and roof,
http://www.audimutesoundproofing.com/Products/Peacemaker-64mm-Anti-VibrationIsolation-Material---2-x-25__APM64000840.aspx?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=newfeed&gclid=Cj0KEQjw_42eBRDHqcG1psmtneEBEiQAWPL8WChmFXbftcuWXREmk81obLSZOOyV3y1BdzGYytRQFPAaAs7d8P8HAQ, to help sound proof the room. Not sure what frequency carbon filters run at but I am guessing lower frequency so I will go with the 6.4mm. Unless someone knows the frequency??
I will then waterproof the flooring, still have not decided on exactly what I will use. After waterproofing the floor I will line the entire room with reflective paneling, material I will also determine later.
I have decided to use CFL's. Yes I know people will plead and argue other lighting is way better and OMG your yields are going to be terrible! But I don't want to deal with heat. So CFL's it is. I am going to get lights for both ends of the spectrum, for flowering and vegging. I know I need 10,000 lumens per square foot. I know I do want an adjustable lighting system from the top that can move up and down so I can keep it 3-6 inches from the plants. I will run fixed lighting in the two corners on the wall connecting to the laundry room as well. That being said after the room is built I will run the lights 24 hours a day as a test to get a temperature in the room, checking it every 6 hours as well as humidity, even though that will change once the plants are in there. I won't start growing until the room is complete and tested.
I will be using a carbon filter, not this exact one but something similar
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-A-GrowBright-6-in-Jr-Inline-Fan-and-Carbon-Filter-Combo this is just the first one that pops up on google. I will cut a hole into the laundry room and run the filter to the dryer hose and disperse the air out that way. Question is if I run more filters will it mask the smell more as long as I am replacing the air?
I will put a hole by the floor at the right side of the closet under the shelving, this is where I will pull the fresh air from.
I plan on putting fans in that I can adjust the height on. This should be the easiest part.
The rest of the build is dependent on how much noise, heat and humidity is going to be created after I complete the room. I will add modifications as they arise.
I do want to do hydro but I might change my mind since you told me that soil doesn't have to get much more attention with the nutrients. However I will have to water every day. Hydro was appealing because you can put a weeks worth of water in and boom your good for a week. I know on my first grow I will be checking it like a newborn cause I am new but eventually after a few grows I am going to want to have that time where I don't want to mess with it.
I have decided to get my seeds from attitude seed bank. I have narrowed it down to a few autos, that I will use for my first grow or so, and I have selected to get a few feminized seeds so I can clone in the future after I get some experience under my belt with whatever setup I decided on, most likely hydro.
If you took the time to read this whole thing you rock and I just high fived you! You are awesome, I don't care what they say about you lol.