Electric pool heaters have been a popular choice for home pool heating for a long time - it makes plenty of sense, given that the pump and filtration system run on electricity, the heat source can easily be hooked up to the same system.
A lot of older pools have old electric heating that is coming to the end of the useful lifetime. Time for a replacement, so what to get?
There are lots of options these days including gas in ground and above ground pool heaters that are really economical. Not everyone wants gas however, so what electrical options are there.
If you are running a standard electrical heater in your pool then it is probably rated at 100% efficiency. Sound very efficient, but the figure just means that all the electricity is going into heating. It does not account for all the losses back at the electricity generating site for example, which is why less efficiently rated gas heaters can save a lot of money.
But electricity can do better that 100% - with pool heat pumps you can look at over 500% efficiency because it take advantage of the heat in the surroundings.
Another thing to think about is complementing an electric heater with swimming pool solar heating, which is easy to install, fairly cheap, and brings down your reliance on mains electricity.