In Chinese telecommunication base stations, the air conditioning energy consumption is almost 47% of the total energy consumption. However, air-to-air thermosyphon heat exchangers can be used in winter, early spring and late autumn to cool the buildings using the outdoor ambient air to significantly decrease the power consumption. An energy consumption model was built based on the indoor environmental building requirements and a combined air conditioner and thermosyphon heat exchanger system. The building heat load and energy consumption were calculated for typical cities in China assuming 50 mm thick sandwich panels as the envelope material. The cooling/heating load, annual electricity savings, annual energy savings and static payback periods for combined system were compared with those for just an air conditioner. A national distribution map was then developed to show the annual energy savings in China for different climate zones. The thermosyphon heat exchanger provides remarkable energy savings. About 87% of all cities in China lie in cold and moderate zones suitable for applications. The annual energy savings is over 30%. The static payback period decreases with increasing annual energy savings with average static payback periods for most cities in China of about 4.3 years. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.