I've had a Lasko Electric Silent Room Heater for 6 years now and it works beautifully. The only difference is that mine is white which I prefer over this new, weird beige color. It can take 20-30 minutes to heat up the whole room but it stays toasty warm as long as you want AND it has a nice timer option so it will automatically shut off.

I was JUST sitting here smiling at my electric fireplace while waiting for this page to open! Because both my husband and daughter have allergies and asthma-y issues, we've decided to bail on real fires in the fireplace, and I bought this little guy for our fireplace instead:
http://www.electricfireplacesdirect.com/products-accessories/electric-fireplace-log-inserts/duraflame-electric-fireplace-insert-log-set-DFI020ARU
I love it because you can turn on just the light of the fire w/o the heat, so you can be cozy even when it's not freezing out, like today's soupy wet 60ish day. It does an okay job of warming up the living room when it is cold, not good enough to be on its own, but it helps keep the living room warm enough to drop the heat in the house when it's the end of the day and time for sleeping or just sitting on the sofa.

We got my parents this guy:
http://www.electricfireplacesdirect.com/products-accessories/electric-fireplace-log-inserts/Dimplex-23-Standard-Electric-Fireplace-Insert-Log-Set
and they love it. They say it really warms up their freezing-cold, high-ceilinged, poorly-insultated-windowed bedroom. In short: everyone needs an electric fireplace, the world will be a happier place if we can all go home and be snuggy at the touch of a remote-control button!

@katemc where does the cord go? I like the idea of the electric fireplace but I feel like a cord coming off the log and running along the floor would sort of ruin the effect.

I went through numerous space heaters that didn't get the job done until I got one similar to the comfortemp oil filled heater listed above. I've been using it for the last three winter with no problems. I often choose to it over my condo's heating system in San Diego's mild winters. When I take a tip from baseboard heaters and place it under a window to get a convection effect, it's able to comfortably warm up a 400 sq ft living area.

It may not be the best looking option on the table, but it certainly does what it's supposed to do.

I have a DeLonghi oil-filled heaters connected to a programmable outlet thermostat in my bird room and it works great. That room is adjacent to my living room and partially open to the rest of the house but I needed some supplemental heat in there during the winter. Previously, I had a Lasko ceramic heater but I had a problem with feather dust collecting in the metal grate in front of the heating element.

@Parnassus, the cord is black and it runs along a dark wood floor to the outlet. I don't notice it... or, it doesn't particularly stand out amongst all the other mess of cords that is life in an old house with two outlets per room!

I'm curious, what do these electric heaters do to your electric bill?

I've heard that infrared heaters, like this one http://www.biosmartsolutions.com/heaters/portable/bio-1500-breathe-easy/bio-1500-pa-2011 do a great job of keeping you warm and don't take that much electricity to run.

Any thoughts and/or personal experiences?

I have a slightly older version of the Comfortemp. The house is heated to 60* during the day. I use the space heater to heat one room to 65*. I work from home and need the home office to be at 65* or I'm too cold to type. It adds about $40 a month to the electric bill from November to February. On the other hand, not heating the whole house to 65* saves about $800 in oil bills over that time span.

The Lasko 755320 Ceramic Tower Heater is great.

It comes with a remote control, which is quite handy.

Make sure your next heater can heat an average size room, has low noise, multiple temperature settings, safety features and a thermostat. Don't buy it if it doesn't have all of that. Things you really don't need are an air ionizer, auto shut off, digital display, remote control or timer. Frugal5.com did a great writeup at http://www.frugal5.com/Best-Electric-Heater-For-The-Money on how to get the most for your money, they recommend the following heaters as having the best bank for your buck:

Lasko 6435 Designer Series Ceramic Oscillating
Lasko 758000 Cyclonic Ceramic
Lasko 5365 Ceramic Pedestal
Vornado VH110 Whole Room Vortex
DeLonghi Mica Panel

Another great option for heating a room or small apartment is an infrared heater from biosmartsolutions.com. They heat up a room quickly with very comfortable infrared heat. My wife loves hers.