Hydro will take a little of trial and error, but you sound prepared for that. And hydro will be well worth the effort, especially for out of season crops. Broccoli is a cool weather plant, but it's quite a large plant (at least the ones I grew were). About 4 feet wide as well as 4 feet tall each plant. As far as how to go about it. First you need to decide on a space and budget, then decide what type of system/s to use for the plants you want to grow. Then work out a floor plan for that space. Here is a couple of articles on creating a indoor grow room.
Building your own Indoor Grow Room part 1
Building your own Indoor Grow Room part 2
I grow outside so I don't really have first hand knowledge of energy consumption for lighting. But you can get a kill-a-watt meter like this one
kill-a-watt (they sell at most hardware stores). That will tell you exactly how much it's costing you, but a 400 watt MH light will cost just about the same to run as 4, 100 watt regular light
bulbs. As far as how much it costs to to build the systems, that can vary greatly by your designs and what materials you choose to use. I have built a 8 plant water culture system for growing lettuce for about $30, to a 4 plant
drip system for growing broccoli for about $80, to a 12 plant flood and drain system for growing peas for about $50 (not including the trellis for the peas to climb on) etc. etc. etc..
http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...rd-system.html (my peas plants)
http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...th-system.html (my lettuce plants)
http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...w-systems.html (my broccoli plants)
I can't post everything because it would be way too long, especially for a question so general. But as far as books check at the library first, I haven't read it yet but "
Hydroponic Food Production" by Dr. Resh is supposed to be excellent (get the latest edition if you can). As well as anything written by Dr. Lynette Morgan like:
Hydroponic Lettuce Production
Hydroponic strawberry production
Hydroponic capsicum production
Fresh Culinary Herb Production
Magazine's
The Growing Edge
Maximum Yield - Indoor Gardening
Websites
Lettuce Handbook
Spinach Handbook
I try not to post links to my site in the posts, but my hydroponic website is about information as well. Although I still have a lot of work to do on it, it still has a lot of information you may find useful
www.HomeHydroSystems.com