I second what stooxie said. I have a 1200 cfm bluestar hood over a 6 burner RNB. Smoke capture is terrific. A lil noisy on full blast but its not on full blast alot. It's also nice that the hood has infinite variable control instead of high med low like others. As to the mixed bag of appliances, that's what I have too and i love it. I don't think you'll find one brand that excels at every appliance. But as long as they match up aesthetically, you'll be good. Mine all have that industrial/commercial look of the bluestar so it all goes nicely.

Given adequate capture aperture, effectiveness is based on having an air velocity at the baffles that is commensurate with the uprising smoke and water vapor velocity, about 3 ft/s for hot cooking. This requires at least 90 CFM/sq. foot over the aperture so that the baffle gaps see around 180 CFM/sq. foot. I find this adequate for wok cooking on my induction wok unit. I can imagine possible higher needs, particularly from 100k BTU/burner commercial wok ranges, but for induction I think the 90 value will suffice. Higher will pull smoke in from the edges of the hood a bit more, but it is a small bit. As to the question of what size blower to use, we need to consider a lot of things, but lets start with the 2 x 2.5 = 5 square foot aperture, and multiply by 90 to get 450 actual CFM. The baffle loss at these flow rates may be 0.1 in. w.c., and there will be other losses in hood transitions, duct friction, and imperfect make-up air (MUA) supply. The blower flow rate drops with pressure loss around the loop from outside to outside. These losses can require the rated capability of the blower to be around 1.5X the requirement, or sometimes even higher. So we start with the derivative assumption that we will need a blower rated for 450 x 1.5 = 675 cfm. For this case I would pick a nominal 800 CFM rated blower, if a compatible one exists for hood installation, in-line mounting, or roof mounting depending on other design and compatibility factors. A 1200 CFM rated unit will also work (given a reasonable fan curve), and provide more margin. Where larger than necessary helps is not particularly in effectiveness, but in lower noise from blade tip turbulence than a smaller fan running at higher speed to move the same amount of air. A 1200 should have a 10-inch duct, and if roof mounted with an in-line silencer, (which is about 14 inches in diameter) careful consideration of duct routing may be needed. An 800 may get away with an 8-inch duct and the silencer will be commensurately smaller. Ideally, duct size should provide a duct area such that the velocity of the air and effluent at the actual flow rate is in the range of 1000 to 2000 feet per minute. This minimizes grease precipitation on the duct, depending on duct temperature. I'm not going to calculate all of the flow rate vs. duct diameter options here, but it is straightforward to do. The big gap in this plan is whether the hood aperture sufficiently overlaps the wok that one is cooking in. If the wok is used on an edge hob, (which I think is all you get with 30-inch induction cooktops) then a 30-inch wide hood will not capture some of the rising effluent, which spreads out as it rises. Better would be a 36 inch hood, which in turn requires 540 CFM actual, or nearly 810 nominal. In my experience, one needs at least 10 degrees of angle between wok cooking zone edge and hood overlap, both to the side, back (on an island), and front. So when this is not easily achieved, then more CFM will help clear the room sooner, and may narrow the rising effluent angle a bit, depending on counter configuration, but will not allow full capture making up for too small of a hood aperture. kas

With conventional hood systems, the expectation is that the larger particles within the entire grease particle spectrum are collected by the baffles, and the smaller particles are ejected into the outside air, with only modest condensation or impact collection by the duct. To deal with the entire particle spectrum with a filter pack is a challenge, and probably unaffordable in cost for most residential users. If the Amazon rating is based on comparison to outside venting, the result above might be reasonable. As a commercial example, the Wells WVU-31CT filter system is described below: "Filtration Completely self-contained filtration process reduces emissions below that allowed in NFPA 96 and ANSI UL710B using the EPA 202 test method and includes stainless steel grease baffle filter with grease cup, fiberglass pre-filters, high-efficiency (Particulate Air) filter/ carbon-charcoal filter pack. All filters are easily removable with out tools. Air flow sensors continually monitor air flow optimizing performance and grease removal while an interlock system will not allow cooking appliances to function if filters are missing, clogged or in the event of a fire." About $18k. Electric surfaces only.

THANK YOU everyone for your wonderful feedback. With your input I am much closer to figuring out this area of the kitchen. Of course, along the way I still have a follow-up question or two. 1) The link to the other hood thread was really useful. We will have storage above the cooktop. I will have to measure but it would be great if we could fit our 12qt pan up there. Perhaps our cast iron Dutch oven or cast iron wok could fit on the other side. 2) If cast iron pans hung on the back wall, above the rangetop but below the hood, would they interfere with the ventilation? (I still subscribe to the "would be too ucky" camp, but my hubby would really like to do this for 3 or 4 of his favorite pans, so I am tryig to keep an open mind.) 3) For those of you who have a pull out base cabinet, is 6" wide enough to store several bottles of oil, cooking wine, etc? Would 9" be better? I suppose hard to average, but can anyone tell me how many bottles can fit on a shelf? Do the bottles tend to fall over when you slide the cabinet in and out? I am starting to think one pullout will only be able to handle bottles, and I will have to plan something else for spices, likely in an upper cabinet. What are your favorite ways to store and make spices easily accessible? I always like the look of the drawer inserts, but I doubt we will ever have all of our spices neatly in the same size bottles. We buy large containers of garlic powder and parsley, "regular" bottles of basil and oregano, and often buy small half size tins of infrequently used spices. We always seem to have a large collection which currently involves constantly hunting through 20-30 bottles to find the wanted one. (At times I have tried alphabetizing them, but with multiple cooks they never stay that way for long.) 4) I am sold on the 4 drawer base cabinet to one side. I am thinking 12". Wide enough? 5) Glad to hear the drawers underneath the cooktop should work. Can anyone tell me how deep those two drawers would be (keeping in mind I am doing a rangetop, not a cooktop)? I am trying to estimate how much of our cookware and lids will fit in those drawers. If anyone could share a picture of their open drawer loaded with pans that would be so helpful. I thinking weighing our pans is a good idea. beuhl  Great description of how to plan the kitchen to make sure you have room for storage. I am a list person too, and was slowly making my way towards your suggestion. I think you helped crystallize it for me. My "light bulb" moment was when I reviewed my layout I was starting to settle on. I was pleased with the appliance location and counter flow, but the suddenly realized I did not have a decent place to store dishes or silverware. So I thought I should back up a bit and think through what I needed to store in each area.