diff --git a/lib/client.js b/lib/client.js
index b924fdbd..dc8edc74 100644
--- a/lib/client.js
+++ b/lib/client.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 var crypto = require('crypto');
 var EventEmitter = require('events').EventEmitter;
 var util = require('util');
+var pgPass = require('pgpass');
 
 var ConnectionParameters = require(__dirname + '/connection-parameters');
 var Query = require(__dirname + '/query');
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ util.inherits(Client, EventEmitter);
 Client.prototype.connect = function(callback) {
   var self = this;
   var con = this.connection;
+
   if(this.host && this.host.indexOf('/') === 0) {
     con.connect(this.host + '/.s.PGSQL.' + this.port);
   } else {
@@ -64,18 +66,33 @@ Client.prototype.connect = function(callback) {
     });
   });
 
-  //password request handling
-  con.on('authenticationCleartextPassword', function() {
-    con.password(self.password);
-  });
+  function checkPgPass(cb) {
+    return function(msg) {
+      if (null !== self.password) {
+        cb(msg);
+      } else {
+        pgPass(self.connectionParameters, function(pass){
+          if (undefined !== pass) {
+            self.connectionParameters.password = self.password = pass;
+          }
+          cb(msg);
+        });
+      }
+    };
+  }
 
   //password request handling
-  con.on('authenticationMD5Password', function(msg) {
+  con.on('authenticationCleartextPassword', checkPgPass(function() {
+    con.password(self.password);
+  }));
+
+  //password request handling
+  con.on('authenticationMD5Password', checkPgPass(function(msg) {
     var inner = Client.md5(self.password + self.user);
     var outer = Client.md5(inner + msg.salt.toString('binary'));
     var md5password = "md5" + outer;
     con.password(md5password);
-  });
+  }));
 
   con.once('backendKeyData', function(msg) {
     self.processID = msg.processID;
diff --git a/lib/connection-parameters.js b/lib/connection-parameters.js
index e69fc5ba..1c3b0c30 100644
--- a/lib/connection-parameters.js
+++ b/lib/connection-parameters.js
@@ -85,8 +85,10 @@ ConnectionParameters.prototype.getLibpqConnectionString = function(cb) {
   if(this.database) {
     params.push("dbname='" + this.database + "'");
   }
-  if(this.isDomainSocket) {
+  if(this.host) {
     params.push("host=" + this.host);
+  }
+  if(this.isDomainSocket) {
     return cb(null, params.join(' '));
   }
   if(this.client_encoding) {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index eb69d96e..c18a8f3c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "generic-pool": "2.0.3",
     "buffer-writer": "1.0.0",
+    "pgpass": "0.0.1",
     "nan": "~0.6.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
diff --git a/test/integration/client/heroku-pgpass-tests.js b/test/integration/client/heroku-pgpass-tests.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c0379233
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/client/heroku-pgpass-tests.js
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+var helper = require(__dirname + '/../test-helper');
+
+// Path to the password file
+var passfile = __dirname + '/heroku.pgpass';
+
+// Export the path to the password file
+process.env.PGPASSFILE = passfile;
+
+// Do a chmod 660, because git doesn't track those permissions
+require('fs').chmodSync(passfile, 384);
+
+var pg = helper.pg;
+
+var host = 'ec2-107-20-224-218.compute-1.amazonaws.com';
+var database = 'db6kfntl5qhp2';
+var user = 'kwdzdnqpdiilfs';
+
+var config = {
+  host: host,
+  database: database,
+  user: user,
+  ssl: true
+};
+
+// connect & disconnect from heroku
+pg.connect(config, assert.success(function(client, done) {
+  client.query('SELECT NOW() as time', assert.success(function(res) {
+    assert(res.rows[0].time.getTime());
+
+    // cleanup ... remove the env variable
+    delete process.env.PGPASSFILE;
+
+    done();
+    pg.end();
+  }))
+}));
diff --git a/test/integration/client/heroku.pgpass b/test/integration/client/heroku.pgpass
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..39bba52e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/client/heroku.pgpass
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+ec2-107-20-224-218.compute-1.amazonaws.com:5432:db6kfntl5qhp2:kwdzdnqpdiilfs:uaZoSSHgi7mVM7kYaROtusClKu