Set right against north glass at 22 °C, 50% humidity and light airflow, a parlor palm scores 100 out of 100. No other sill gives it that. On an east sill the same plant reads 67, on a west one 66 and against south glass 45, each time because the glass is brighter than this palm wants. What a north sill can do is get cold. At 17 °C it’s down to 68. An areca on the same sill never reaches a great fit at all.
Read on 14 October 2026, the top pages for this search agree on the window and say almost nothing about distance. Hunker, Plant Addicts, the Old Farmer’s Almanac and BloomingExpert all send this palm to a north or east window, and Melinda Myers puts it near a north one. Hunker goes furthest on cold: in a chilly climate, keeping it away from windows “may be wise”. On how cold is too cold they split. Plant Addicts prints 65 to 75 °F, and BloomingExpert sets an overnight floor of 55 °F.
Those two numbers turn out to be the two edges of the cold table further down.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
Is north light enough for a parlor palm?
Enough, without tipping into too much, and for this plant the second half is the one that counts. Our care data files the parlor palm in the low light band. A north sill, at an estimated 3,640 lux under a clear sky, lands inside that band without going over the top of it, which is why the light marker on the card reads just right.
This is what other sites print as a parlor palm’s light needs, left in whatever unit each one used:
| Who publishes it | What it says a parlor palm needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| growlightmeter.com | 6 – 12 PPFD / DLI | Parlor Palm |
| extension.arizona.edu | 25–75 foot-candles | listed under the heading "Low Light (25–75 fc)" |
| houseplantjournal.com | 100 FC (20 µmol) foot-candles | minimum indirect light level |
| houseplantjournal.com | 200 FC (40 µmol) foot-candles | good indirect light level |
| houseplantsnook.com | 100–200 foot-candles | chart fc level |
Converted, our north-sill estimate comes to roughly 340 foot-candles, above every foot-candle figure in that table. So the published numbers set a floor this window clears easily. Not one of them marks where too much light begins, and that’s the edge a parlor palm actually runs into at a window. The north window guide takes 42 plants from this sill to two metres back, and the parlor palm is one of the twelve still a great fit there.
The lux numbers here come from a model rather than a meter. It takes the compass direction, the pot’s distance from the pane and a cloudless sky, so a grey week or a wall opposite pulls all of them down.
Which windowsill suits a parlor palm?
The north one, and by a wide margin. Here is one palm moved along the sill of each window in turn, with the room held the same:
| The window whose sill it sits on | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| North window | 3,640 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| East window | 6,500 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 67/100 |
| West window | 7,800 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| South window | 13,000 lux | Too bright here | Not the best fit right now, 45/100 |
North is the one row where the light column reads just right. East and west both come out a bit bright, and the south sill, at 13,000 lux, isn’t even worth a try. The ceiling of this palm’s comfortable light sits somewhere between the north sill’s 3,640 lux and the east sill’s 6,500.
The brighter windows do reach it further in. In our runs an east window reads a great fit from a metre back and a west one from a metre and a half, while south glass needs three. Melinda Myers’s full line has the right shape: near a north window, a few feet back from east or west glass. A few feet covers east. West wants nearer five.
That sharpens a line on our page about this palm at an east window, which says a north window scores it as well as an east one. A metre into the room, that holds. On the sill, north is ahead.
How cold is too cold for a parlor palm on a north sill?
Both published floors show up in this table, at two different edges. The pot stays put on the north sill and the thermometer is the one thing that changes:
| Air temperature at the sill | What the light is doing | What the warmth is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 °C | Just the right amount of light | Too cold here | Not the best fit right now, 46/100 |
| 12 °C | Just the right amount of light | Too cold here | Not the best fit right now, 48/100 |
| 13 °C | Just the right amount of light | A little cool, but workable | Worth a try, 64/100 |
| 17 °C | Just the right amount of light | A little cool, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| 18 °C | Just the right amount of light | Comfortable temperature | Great fit, 99/100 |
| 21 °C | Just the right amount of light | Comfortable temperature | Great fit, 100/100 |
At 18 °C the palm is still a great fit at 99. One degree lower the score falls to 68, worth a try, and it stays in that band down to 13 °C, where it reads 64. At 12 °C it’s 48 and no longer worth a try. Plant Addicts’ 65 °F is about 18 °C, where comfort ends. BloomingExpert’s 55 °F is about 13 °C, where coping ends. Both pages are right about a different edge.
A north pane is where a room gets that cold first, and the pothos-in-a-north-window page explains why. The palm has a little more slack than a pothos or a peace lily on the same glass. Both of those have already dropped to worth a try at 18 °C, and both are out of it by 15.
So Hunker’s warning is right for some winters and harmless in the rest. A metre back from north glass the light still reads a great fit, so moving the pot in for the cold months costs it nothing. If the air at the sill holds 18 °C through the night, leave it on the glass.
Can a parlor palm live at the back of a north room?
Most of the year, yes. On a clear day the score barely moves out to six metres. Winter finds the edge in the same place as for a peace lily at the same window. At London’s latitude a pot four metres back slips to worth a try for November, December and January, while three metres in holds a great fit all year.
Can a parlor palm sit on a north sill if you have a cat?
On the ASPCA’s plant list, Chamaedorea elegans is entered as safe for both cats and dogs, and every care page we opened repeats it. If that’s why it’s the plant in the cat’s room, the north sill costs it nothing on light: it’s the best-scoring sill this palm has. The page on cat-safe plants for low light scores it beside a cast iron plant and a spider plant, from a north window out to a dark corner.
Before the palm goes on the sill
All of this assumes an open north window in the northern hemisphere on a clear day. A balcony above it or a block of flats a few metres away dims every row. To check your own sill, run it through the free spot checker, which folds in live weather for your town.
Published October 14, 2026
