What is more important to you: Daytime highs or Nightime lows? (warm, average)

[Bottletree]

Good question. Thinking about it, a warm high temperature is more important to me in the winter. In the summer it is a mix up of both.

[memph]

So far I haven't spent summer away from my parents' house (I will this year since I'm taking courses this summer) which doesn't have A/C and July is right at those temperatures 65/80F on average.

This July the nights were warmer from 64.4F to 74.7F and 68.7F on average. Variation in daytime highs was much greater from 71.2F to 96.1F and 82.3F on average. Still, there were many nights were quite comfortable for sleeping with windows open, most weren't too bad and only on a few did I sleep in the basement (which is always comfortably cool). The temperature at bedtime is usually around the midpoint of the high and low. Based on that, bedtime (10-12pm) temperatures I felt were comfortable would have been around 68-72F, tolerable but slightly uncomfortable would have been around 72-76F and uncomfortable 76F-85F.

My tolerance for sleeping at warmer temperatures might be a bit higher than some people's though.

[Infamous92]

I almost always care more about the high temperatures, the chances of me being outside during the warmest part of the day are greater than the chances of me being outside during the coolest part of the day, however both are of importance.

I'm pretty mindful of high temperatures year-round, the warmer the better. I pay more attention to low temperatures in the winter than I do in the summer, I need to know what to expect in the morning. During the winter, I'm uncomfortable most of the time, so it seems as if every degree counts, the difference between 25°F and 30°F ("ughhh" versus "it's cold") is much more perceptible to me than the difference between 70°F and 75°F ("nice" versus "slightly nicer"), this may be a contributing factor as to why I pay more mind to wintertime lows.

[Mac15]

Daytime highs as nightime lows are affected by those and our daytime highs in the winter are crap sometimes.

[P London]

They're both equally as important.

[dunno what to put here]

In summer, nighttime lows are more important to me - hot days I can tolerate, but I find it hard to tolerate warm nights. In winter, daytime highs are more important, I would prefer a place with average highs of -2C and average lows of -7C to a place with highs of 3C and lows of -15C.

[Weatherfan2]

Daytime highs are more important to me in summer. I want 25-35°C highs in June - August. I can deal with it if a few nights are a bit cool (like below 15°C) but would rather no lower than that and mostly around 20°C. But the warm days come first. This is also true in other times of the year. I don't mind a few frosts in winter if the diurnal range is big and it reaches double figures often in the day.

This:

-2/10
-1/11
2/14
5/19
8/23
13/27
15/30
15/30
12/25
7/20
3/14
-1/11

is better than this:

2/6
2/7
3/10
7/14
11/20
14/24
16/26
16/26
13/22
10/17
7/12
3/8

[Richard82]

Daytime highs are more important to me in summer. Nighttime lows are completely irrelevant to me at that time of year as they usually occur around 4am. It can often be warmer by 9am following a clear cold night with min in single figures than it is following a very mild cloudy night when the temperature has barely risen above the low by that time.

Nighttime lows are never warm enough to cause problems sleeping either. The warmest night I've recorded in the past 8 years was only 17.9C and in 2010 the warmest night was just 13.9C. Most years its around 15-16C.

In winter the lows are more important as I prefer to wake up to nice crisp frosty morning than 3C and rain which seems to have been common this past winter.

[Rozenn]

Originally Posted by P London

They're both equally as important.

This.

Though I assume that for climates with an average low above 65°F or so, AC is available. If it averages above, the number of potentially uncomfortable nights (say above 70°F) rises dramatically, so lows would be more important in summer. Such a climate would be much less attractive without climate control, but it's the same with heating in winter.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Rozenn

Though I assume that for climates with an average low above 65°F or so, AC is available. If it averages above, the number of potentially uncomfortable nights (say above 70°F) rises dramatically, so lows would be more important in summer. Such a climate would be much less attractive without climate control, but it's the same with heating in winter.

65°F sounds like a good thershold, though I think a lot of Hawaiian homes don't have A/C. One can always add a room unit though Hawaiian electricity prices are very high. Looks like some European countries are almost as high:

Electricity pricing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

12¢/kWhr here, 17¢ down in New York.

In a tropical place like Hawaii, homes can built for the sake of natural cooling without any worries about comfort or effciency for cooler weather. There's no need for insulation there, I suspect a well-built house would ventilate well, while in a place like New England traditionally houses were built to minimize heating and stay warm not keep cool.