Energy companies have swamped British homes with 200million eco-lightbulbs over the past 20 months, despite warnings from experts that many go unused.
One supplier sent out an astonishing 12million unsolicited bulbs over Christmas alone, clogging up the postal service at the busiest time of the year.
The 'free' bulbs - which are paid for by consumers in their fuel bills - allow suppliers to meet their legally binding targets for improving home energy efficiency.
However, a survey by the Energy Saving Trust has shown that the typical home has at least six unused low energy bulbs stashed away in drawers and cupboards.
According to Ofgem, the typical gas and electricity customers pays £38 a year in their bills towards energy efficiency subsidies and free light bulbs.
The scale of waste came to light as a Government ban on unsolicited mail-outs of light bulbs came into force at the start of the month.
The 'lightbulb avalanche' was triggered in spring 2008 when ministers ordered power companies to invest in schemes to improve home energy efficiency and slash the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.
The suppliers were allowed to pick from a menu of low efficiency measures - such as subsidised loft insulation or free cavity wall insulation for pensioners.
However, the companies realised they could meet the targets most cheaply by mailing millions of low energy lightbulbs to homes. Many have sent out the unpopular 'compact fluorescent bulbs' which critics complain give off inferior quality light.
Under the rules, they were allowed to send up to two to each household without having to prove whether the bulbs were needed, wanted or used.
According to the watchdog Ofgem, householders were sent 182 million bulbs between April 2008 and November 2009. Most were unsolicited.
In July the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) warned that bulb mail-outs could do more harm than good and announced that they would be banned from 2010.
'Government is increasingly concerned that the number of lamps already distributed has been so high that it may work out at more than the average number of highest-use light fittings in a house,' a report concluded.
'As such, there is an increasing risk to carbon savings under the scheme where lamps are not used, are installed on low-use light fittings or replace existing low energy bulbs'.
However, despite the looming ban, Britain's third biggest supplier Npower sent out 12million more bulbs in November and December - bringing the UK total to nearly 200million.
The German owned company faced a £40million fine if it failed to meet its low energy targets.
A company spokesman denied it was cluttering up the homes with unwanted bulbs.
'We want to make sure that Npower customers don't miss out on a simple way to save energy and reduce their bills,' he said.
'We're spending over £350million on our energy-saving programme and free light bulbs are only a tiny part of this. Every hour, of every working day, we complete over 120 projects ranging from simple loft insulation to sophisticated microgeneration.'
A spokesman for DECC said unsolicited mail outs had been banned under its Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme because too many eco-bulbs were being unused.
'We are also consulting whether to stop energy companies giving away subsidised light bulbs with retailers under CERT as well to encourage more focus on insulation,' he said.
source: dailymail
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