This paper proposes a gravity heat pipe exchanger used for cooling the communication base station to replace the traditional air conditioning system during winter and transition seasons. Tests were conducted on a commercial available gravity heat pipe exchanger. The experiment was performed to study the effects of the air flow rate and temperature on the cooling capacity, the heat transfer unit number (NTU) and cooling efficiency of the heat pipe exchanger. The results showed that the larger the air flow rate, the smaller the NTU and the larger the cooling capacity. Based on the analysis of the experimental data, it proved that the gravity heat pipe exchanger could reduce running time and operating cost of air conditioning system. According to the practical applications, the yearly cooling loads of a typical communication base station were further calculated for five typical cities which represent the five climatic zones of China. The results validated that the energy saving by using the gravity heat pipe exchanger is significant. The highest annual electricity-saving rate is achieved by Kunming, about 48.6%, while the lowest annual electricity-saving rate is obtained in Guangzhou, about 18.7% among the five climatic zones. The fitted correlation of cooling capacity in term of outdoor temperature is generic to evaluate approximately the performance of applying the gravity heat pipe exchanger in the actual applications subject to various outdoor temperatures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.