China to 'Copper Standard'?

China is buying up commodity metals

wiki: Bancor

Now THAT makes sense... if you're going to have a monetary system anchored by a commodity, which gold is, then better to have a range of them to avoid the gold pitfalls.
The US (and Canada) still has a fair share of many of these but, of course, will be hamstrung by the environmental lobbies.

 

I wondered why the price of copper is up 40% ( last time I checked) when there is not much new construction going. More vacant homes will be ransacked now.

 

Mo, I'm guessing you know the cost of copper from your remodel.. so some opinion on plumbing:

I'd use as little copper as possible in remodel. The problem is that every plastic method has an unknown future reliability model. So..Where it makes sense to use copper is in wall and soffit runs where it's inaccessible. For all accessible areas use CPVC {even cold} or PEX/brass*.
- in addition I'd braze or silver solder {as in A/C applications} the joints in hidden copper runs.
Home run of hot water to WH is advised, using minimal sized tubing to each zone or fixture. UNLESS you cant 'centralize' the HW heater, in which case I'd recommend a 'small tank' reheater in the remote zone line to minimize 'warmup run'.

I really DONT LIKE the 'On Demand' so-called 'efficient' types. For gas they are expensive, high maintenance, and troublesome, for electric just too damned high cost in watt/demand and wiring costs.
All these of course are dependent on local util costs.

* Word of warning: There is NO SUCH thing as a reliable threaded plastic fitting especially FIP transitions. All such should be molded plastic/brass {approved} or all brass {best}. This is why any threaded plastic fitting you find will be labeled 'special' or 'special use'