The outside surfaces of south and west outer walls can absorb a large amount of solar energy in winter, which is very difficult to be directly used for space heating due to larger thermal resistance of the wall. The wall implanted with heat pipes (WIHP), as a new type of passive solar utilization technology, can make good use of the heat absorbed by the outside surface of wall. In this paper, the applicability of the WIHP in winter was studied by calculating and analyzing the working hours and heat transfer capacity of the south and west WIHPs in different districts, and the working temperature in Beijing was calculated to analyze the heat transfer performance at different time. The results show that the south WIHP is with more working hours, larger heat transfer capacity and higher energy saving rate, which can be used in the 93.63% of heating areas. The working time of the west WIHP is postponed compared with the south WIHP, so the west WIHP can only be used in specific districts. Moreover, combining the west and south WIHPs can suggest better performances, which can be popularized in engineering applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.