The Växjö Municipality in Sweden sets specific energy requirements above the national building code while sellingland for new residential buildings. A main energy requirement for Östra Lugnet residential area in Växjö was that allbuildings must be connected to the district heating network. In this paper we analysed final energy use of thebuildings, and compared the primary energy use and CO2 emission from operation of the buildings connected todistrict heating system with hypothetical scenarios where only air-source heat pumps were installed. The resultshowed that district heating is the better option from the perspective of lower carbon emission. Therefore, it seemsappropriate for Växjö Municipality to set conditions for new residential buildings in Östra Lugnet to connect to thelocal district heating network as it contributes to its goal of low carbon society.