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Have you closed all the vents except the one in the cold bedroom?
You could have a leak in you duct.
If you don't have a leak, then I'd go with the oil filled space heater. We use them in our kids' room. They're safe and I think they are the most efficient electric heater.
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I have 2 oil filled radiators. One Kenwood with electronic digital thermostat with timers and a basic Delonghi with 2 push button setting and a manual dial for thermostat.
The simple Delonghi heats up faster and works better, puts out more heat even on the low setting, I use it in a closed bedroom. The 3 settings are more convenient than playing with a digital thermostat. I think it is $36 at Lowes.
The other one is a pain in the a** and does not work well at all on manual. The thermostat is off by 10 degrees and the thing cycles on an off too much. It was around $69
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Either one of those heater types will use the same amount of energy (a lot) since they simply transform current into heated air and heat via conduction/convection alone. The only way to reduce energy use with electric is to use a radiant or combo heater (i.e. one of those that has a glowing red element and reflector. That type will use less energy because it won't (much) heat the air, but will instead heat the objects that the radiant energy shines towards.
That said, if it were me I'd fix the heating system before taking the expensive brute force approach of adding an electric heater. The first things to check are:
1) Are the ducts are leaking? How old is your duct system? There was a period of time during which standard cloth duct tape was used to attach duct segments and registers. However, it was later discovered that the adhesive in cloth duct tape fails after a few years so many houses with ducts installed during those periods (i.e. roughly the 60s through mid-90s) have duct systems that are falling apart.
2) Are the system dampers properly balanced? The system balance is controlled by dampers in the duct system, NOT by opening/closing vents. If the dampers are not set right then fiddling with the vent will not help at all.
3) If the ducts are OK and dampers balanced, the other problem might be that there is insufficient air return in the bedroom area (if the cold air can't get out of the room then there is no way that hot air can get in to the room). That could be because of poor system design (insufficient return ducting) or because the bedroom door seals too tightly (can be fixed by cutting off the bottom of the door or by installing a vent between room and hallway).
Several of these things you can check yourself, but you might want to pay for a couple of hours time by an HVAC/energy efficiency expert to check this stuff out. It would probably be far cheaper and more satisfying than having to run a wasteful and expensive electric heater all the time.
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Ditto Davester. Great suggestions.
FWIW I had a room in my house also not getting enough heat, or AC. I initially attributed it to the same reasons you listed - corner room, 2 big windows. Also it's above the unheated garage, so there's no radiant heat rising up from above, as in other rooms. Had a HVAC guy come out to test airflow with a sensor because the vent felt a little weaker than others - turns out the duct feeding that room was damaged in construction of the house, and it was getting a fraction of the air intended.
This was new construction, not even an older house, so it goes to show, anything can go wrong. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's working.
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68 is a good sleeping temp. We supplement our Den with a $5 yard sale Delonghi Oil filled heater
but never need to run it on high and shut it off at night. There's only one duct going to our Den
and it's 400 sq.ft. and the flow is weak. I like the Vornado heater I got for $2 last year but the wife
has gotten used to the silence of the Delonghi. We keep the house on 68 at night and 70 during
the day.
Grateful11
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Bedroom - use an electric bedwarmer.
Heat the people sleeping, not the room
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I have a mattress warmer, but sometimes a heating pad at feet on low is enough. I have to fight Baby for it.
