Like many people, we started years ago replacing high wattage incandescent light bulbs around the house with compact fluorescent bulbs, to save electricity and lower our electric bill. They work just fine, but what we didn't realize is that they put out a lot of ultraviolet radiation -- not enough to be a health hazard of course, but still quite a bit. We had a pair of lamps in our living room with these bulbs, and after some years the lamp shades just fell apart. You could put your finger right through the fabric. The ultraviolet radiation had simply weakened them until they were like tissue paper.
The lesson is, if you have lights with lampshades, use the new led lights instead of compact fluorescent bulbs and save your lampshades. They don't put out much, if any, ultraviolet radiation.
The new Philips Ambient LED lights work wonderfully (don't be put off by the bright yellow glass when they are off - they are a perfect match to a warm white incandescent lamp when on). We are using the 17 watt ones (equivalent to a 75 watt bulb), but Philips has announced that 100-watt equivalent bulbs will also be available this fall. The initial cost is high, of course (near $35 per lamp), but is more than recovered over the very, very long life of the lamp. But of course replacement lampshades can be very expensive, so it is worth it.
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