diff --git a/lib/connection-parameters.js b/lib/connection-parameters.js
index 91ad663c..9f44c8e9 100644
--- a/lib/connection-parameters.js
+++ b/lib/connection-parameters.js
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ var ConnectionParameters = function(config) {
   this.password = val('password', config);
   this.binary = val('binary', config);
   this.ssl = config.ssl || defaults.ssl;
+  this.client_encoding = val("client_encoding", config);
   //a domain socket begins with '/'
   this.isDomainSocket = (!(this.host||'').indexOf('/'));
 };
@@ -61,7 +62,9 @@ ConnectionParameters.prototype.getLibpqConnectionString = function(cb) {
     params.push("host=" + this.host);
     return cb(null, params.join(' '));
   }
-  params.push("client_encoding='utf-8'");
+  if(this.client_encoding) {
+    params.push("client_encoding='" + this.client_encoding + "'");
+  }
   dns.lookup(this.host, function(err, address) {
     if(err) return cb(err, null);
     params.push("hostaddr=" + address);
diff --git a/lib/defaults.js b/lib/defaults.js
index 738908ee..d15a5b7b 100644
--- a/lib/defaults.js
+++ b/lib/defaults.js
@@ -31,5 +31,7 @@ module.exports = {
   reapIntervalMillis: 1000,
 
   //pool log function / boolean
-  poolLog: false
+  poolLog: false,
+
+  client_encoding: ""
 };
diff --git a/test/unit/connection-parameters/creation-tests.js b/test/unit/connection-parameters/creation-tests.js
index 6e73f7cd..90ec18a5 100644
--- a/test/unit/connection-parameters/creation-tests.js
+++ b/test/unit/connection-parameters/creation-tests.js
@@ -124,6 +124,18 @@ test('libpq connection string building', function() {
     }));
   });
 
+  test("encoding can be specified by config", function() {
+    var config = {
+      client_encoding: "utf-8"
+    }
+    var subject = new ConnectionParameters(config);
+    subject.getLibpqConnectionString(assert.calls(function(err, constring) {
+      assert.isNull(err);
+      var parts = constring.split(" ");
+      checkForPart(parts, "client_encoding='utf-8'");
+    }));
+  })
+
   test('password contains  < and/or >  characters', function () {
     return false;
     var sourceConfig = {