This paper presents a new Trombe wall satisfying the requirements of thermal insulation in hot summer and cold winter zone. A solar collector plate, a thermal radiation reflection layer, and an indoor radiation panel were designed for the wall. To evaluate the thermal insulation performance of the wall in summer, both southward and westward walls were investigated numerically and experimentally under Xiangtan weather conditions. The results show that thickening of the massive wall is beneficial in reducing the heat transfer through the wall, and the economic thickness of wall depends on collector temperature. The higher the collector temperature, the higher the effect of reflectivity variation of outer surface on the thermal insulation performance. The collector temperature reached a maximum value of 84.8 degrees C under no-load with closed windows condition, and the collector temperature was 49.1 degrees C under heating with opened windows condition. These results indicate that the heat transfer capacity and thermal insulation performance of the wall can be controlled by varying the collector temperature under different operating conditions. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.