Water disinfection of E. coli by high frequency pulsed low electric fields was investigated. The effects of constructional, electrical and aqueous parameters on disinfection efficiency and energy efficiency were evaluated. Experiments were performed with a 500 mL cylindrical reactor. Average electric intensity of 3-12 kV/cm was applied and pulsed frequency was up to 20 000 Hz. Optimized structure of high voltage electrode were six equally distributed mesh electrodes with diameter of 40 mm. Both the disinfection efficiency and energy efficiency were enhanced by increasing the electric strength and pulse duration. Water conductivity could influence the pulsed waveforms and single pulse energy, which changed the disinfection results. Reducing the initial bacterial density made the process more effective and easily realized sterilization. Pulsed frequency did not show any effect on disinfection, but high frequency could greatly reduce treatment time. When pulsed voltage, pulsed width, water conductivity and initial bacteria density were 6 kV, 30 μs, 2.5 μS/cm and 103-106 cfu/mL, respectively, 1-2 logarithmic reduction were obtained with energy consumption less than 200 J/mL and water temperature lower than 40 ℃. If initial bacterial density was less than 1 250 cfu/mL, all the cells could be sterilized, which was a non-thermal processing.