Supermarket chain announces sale of five energy saving light bulb sticks for just 40 pence.
The promotion will run until January 27 and will be available in more than 800 stores across the country as well as online through the Tesco.com grocery site.

Tesco hardware category director, Peter Groves, said: "We are committed to helping our customers to save money whilst doing their part for the environment. The last promotion we ran on energy saving bulbs was so popular with customers that we sold more bulbs that month than in the previous six combined. That is why we have decided to repeat the promotion."

The news follows reports in the press of panic buying of 100w incandescent bulbs in anticipation of their ban later this year. A story in the Daily Mail claimed consumers were unhappy about making the move to low energy bulbs and complained they were more expensive compared with traditional versions.

The move by Tesco will no doubt make the purchase of energy saving light bulbs more appealing to consumers. However, questions will be raised over how the supermarket giant can offer such a low price point.

The cheapest low energy bulb diyweek.net could find online was a Philips 8w for 95 pence from www.ecofriendlylightbulbs.co.uk.

Tesco customers bought 3.5m energy saving light bulbs in October 2008.