diff --git a/bin/runtime-qemu.js b/bin/runtime-qemu.js
index 0d5251e..6b51556 100755
--- a/bin/runtime-qemu.js
+++ b/bin/runtime-qemu.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
 
 var argv = require('minimist')(process.argv.slice(2), {
-  boolean: ['kvm', 'verbose', 'nographic', 'dry-run', 'netdump', 'curses', 'virtio-rng']
+  boolean: ['kvm', 'verbose', 'nographic', 'dry-run', 'netdump', 'curses', 'virtio-rng', 'local']
 });
 var shell = require('shelljs');
 var qemu = require('../qemu');
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ if (!command) {
   shell.echo('  --virtio-rng          Enable VIRTIO-RNG entropy source for the runtime.js');
   shell.echo('  --nographic           Disable graphics');
   shell.echo('  --kernel=<kernel>     Specify local kernel file to use');
+  shell.echo('  --local               Download the kernel locally (i.e. in the module\'s directory)');
   shell.echo('  --kernelver=<ver>     Specify kernel version to download (defaults to latest)');
   shell.echo('');
   shell.echo('  --print-log           Show log file written in curses mode (using less)');
@@ -95,7 +96,7 @@ var qemuVirtioRng = !!argv['virtio-rng'];
 var dryRun = !!argv['dry-run'];
 var verbose = !!argv.verbose;
 
-getRuntime(kernelVer, kernelFile, function(err, runtimeFile) {
+getRuntime(kernelVer, kernelFile, !!argv.local, function(err, runtimeFile) {
   if (err) {
     throw err;
   }
diff --git a/get-prebuilt.js b/get-prebuilt.js
index 7d7b9b0..4fd3a53 100644
--- a/get-prebuilt.js
+++ b/get-prebuilt.js
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ var nugget = require('nugget');
 var shell = require('shelljs');
 var path = require('path');
 
-module.exports = function(kernelVersion, cb) {
-  var kernelsDir = path.resolve(__dirname, 'runtimejs-kernels');
+module.exports = function(kernelVersion, shouldBeLocal, cb) {
+  var basePath = shouldBeLocal ? __dirname : process.env[(process.platform === 'win32') ? 'USERPROFILE' : 'HOME'];
+  var kernelsDir = path.resolve(basePath, '.runtime');
   if (!shell.test('-d', kernelsDir)) {
     shell.mkdir(kernelsDir);
   }
diff --git a/get-runtime.js b/get-runtime.js
index 2685731..a4e7652 100644
--- a/get-runtime.js
+++ b/get-runtime.js
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 var getPrebuilt = require('./get-prebuilt');
 
-module.exports = function(kernelVer, kernelFile, cb) {
+module.exports = function(kernelVer, kernelFile, shouldBeLocal, cb) {
   if (!kernelFile) {
-    return getPrebuilt(kernelVer, cb);
+    return getPrebuilt(kernelVer, shouldBeLocal, cb);
   } else {
     return cb(null, kernelFile);
   }