Question about Direct Sunlight

I have a few house plants and I know not to put them direct sunlight when they are outside in summer. But indoors, I'm having a tough time finding a good place for them where they won't receive at least some direct sun during the day. However, they would be situated anywhere from 2-4 feet from an Eastern window.

My question is...is it ok for my plants to receive direct Eastern sunlight while indoors during winter if they are a few feet away from the window? Or does "no direct sun' mean no direct sun even when 3 feet from the window, and even if it's only for an hour or 2 or less?

The plants in question are: heart-leaf Philodendron, Maranta(Prayer Plant), Parlor Palm, Ardisia crenata (Coralberry), Philodendron 'Lemon Lime', and Neon Pothos.

Thanks!

3 feet is a long way away from a window so they should be very safe. Don't put any plant right on a windowsill to begin with but eventually you could place the more sun tolerant plants on a windowsill. Check your plants every day for burn and stretching. They will indicate if you have them in the right position or need more light. Remember to rotate on a regular basis too.

I made a mistake of putting cut African violets in a southern window a couple of days ago and the leaves next to the window burned (not a huge deal since these were bound to be cut soon anyway) so I moved them a foot away on a baker's rack where a lot of plants reside.

3 feet from a eastern window would be fine, others will give you more advice.
Christine

The early morning sun and late afternoon are fine for low light plants. The sun light is filtered by many miles of atmosphere when it is rising and setting, but comes through a lot less air in the middle of the day. I have kept several of the plants you list under varying conditions.
heart-leaf Philodendron, Maranta(Prayer Plant) A few feet from a southern window with overhanging eaves. Quite bright, but no direct sun. I currently have the heartleaf P in a greenhouse where it is running under one of the tables, and growing as a ground cover under some larger plants. Again, not in direct light, but bright.
Parlor Palm- It has been a long time, but I think it was in a fairly bright spot.
Philodendron 'Lemon Lime'- Most Philodendrons are pretty adaptable as long as changes (especially increasing light) are made slowly so the leaves do not burn
Neon Pothos- My experience is with the oldest Golden Pothos: Direct light was not good, but I hung it from nails all around a west facing window. Each leaf might have gotten an hour or so of direct sun, but the sun moved, and the leaves were not right in the window, but inside. Also in a much dimmer location, and it does OK. Better with good light.

Diana, I have a Golden Pothos and Marbled Pothos in hanging baskets hanging on hooks in an east facing kitchen window. They are about a foot or so from the window. The window is actually 3 windows: 2 narrow and one large, wider one in the center like a bay window. They receive direct sunlight for several hours a day, first from the east as the sun rises, and then more direct sun as it moves southeast. So, they get about 4-5 hours of decent direct sun...well, at least the leaves hanging down do. The leaves on top of the hanging basket are lucky if they receive 30 minutes of direct sun; however they are receiving many hours of light from the fluorescent ceiling light a few feet away. The Golden Pothos has grown tremendously in just 1 month. Here are 2 pics of my Golden Pothos...the 1st pic was taken Jan 7, 2014 and the 2nd pic was taken today February 6, 2014.

For those who want to know:
When considering plant placement in bright light, there are actually 2 things to consider. One is sunburn (photo-oxidation) and the other over-heating. What many people call sunburn is really over-heating. Even plants that tolerate low light well will often tolerate the brightest light load coming through windows (which usually reduces visible light transmission by at least 30%) but may not tolerate the heat build-up that accompanies siting in direct light.

The exception to the preceding would be plants acclimated to low light that are suddenly moved to bright light. The pigment chlorophyll is nature's sunscreen for plants. Plants grown in low light won't have enough pigment to protect them if they are suddenly moved to high light exposures. If plant's aren't acclimated to bright light gradually, they can suffer photo-oxidation fairly easily.

Also, leaves are only able to adapt to changes in light by degrees. If light levels are rated from 0 (dark) to 10 (blazingly bright), a plant that is acclimated to growing at a level of 4 might only be able to adapt to a level of 6 or 7 or 8, even if the plant is genetically programmed to tolerate a level of 10. The reverse is the same, except that plants are generally LESS able to tolerate lowered light levels than increased light levels. In either case, the result of the inability to adapt is manifest in the plant shedding the foliage that can't tolerate the change, and growing new foliage that is particularly efficient at dealing with the new hand it's been dealt.

Sunburn occurs when high light intensity levels cause chlorophyll molecules to rise to a more excited state than normal. If light levels are high enough, the energy that is released as electrons in molecules return to their normal energy state may be sufficient to form oxygen radicals from O2. These are exactly the same O2- radicals found in H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) and are extremely reactive particles that readily destroy chlorophyll molecules. The entire process and technical term is photo-oxidation, but most often we refer to it as sunburn.

Different from sunburn is simple heat build-up. Leaves become passive solar collectors when light energy is turned to heat on the leaf's surface. Compounding the problem is a thin layer of air that surrounds the leaf, called the boundary layer, which insulates the leaf against heat loss. To reduce or eliminate the effects of over-heating, you can use a fan, which disrupts the boundary layer and allows the plant to cool.

Sunburn is usually characterized initially by silver or gray areas, a washed-out look, where light exposure is most intense and/or where the plant is least able to tolerate the heavy photo load. After the initial damage, different plants show different reactions due to wide variation in leaf composition.

Sounds like sunburn versus heat stroke for people - both are bad for you, one is painful and the other is life threatening.

In my experience it is difficult to sunburn plants indoors. Very young plants are the exception. The heat problem is one thing, and potentially dangerous, but avoidable with good airflow and a barrier between the sun and the pot (preventing it from becoming a casserole and cooking the roots). It may be helpful to understand how light passes through ordinary window glass... About 85% of the visible light passes through (I measured) but most of he UV is blocked. Ultraviolet light can be very dangerous to plants which have not adjusted. When I move my plants outside from a position right inside south facing windows (hours of afternoon sun filtered by glass) a rough equivalent that does not overly stress them is bright shade, maybe a little morning sun.

One more thing... "direct sun" means different things to different people, but to me it means unblocked and unfiltered sunlight. The sunlight that passes through glass is filtered (as I described) and you will find it is very different from what a plant experiences outdoors. In other words, an indoor plant will never experience direct sun unless the window is open and there is no screen.