The paper investigates ways of optimizing energy in low-income housing, for sustainability in Botswana for both existing and future residential houses. The building stock and trends in building energy use will be identified. It is noted that the important source of increase in energy use in residential buildings has come from increasing dependency on electricity. The biggest share of energy goes to water heating and the next category is space heating/cooling and lighting. The bulk of the building stock is inherited from eras of energy use that were different from the ones that the country is facing today.