diff --git a/docs/tutorial/installation.md b/docs/tutorial/installation.md
index 3b8dc06567ca..d1d41d26866e 100644
--- a/docs/tutorial/installation.md
+++ b/docs/tutorial/installation.md
@@ -91,9 +91,9 @@ The above configuration will download from URLs such as
 `https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/electron/8.0.0/electron-v8.0.0-linux-x64.zip`.
 
 If your mirror serves artifacts with different checksums to the official
-Electron release you may have to set `electron_use_remote_checksums=1` to
-force Electron to use the remote `SHASUMS256.txt` file to verify the checksum
-instead of the embedded checksums.
+Electron release you may have to set `electron_use_remote_checksums=1` directly,
+or configure it in a `.npmrc` file, to force Electron to use the remote `SHASUMS256.txt`
+file to verify the checksum instead of the embedded checksums.
 
 #### Cache
 
diff --git a/npm/install.js b/npm/install.js
index 8fb438ecace2..2f79f334e820 100755
--- a/npm/install.js
+++ b/npm/install.js
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ downloadArtifact({
   artifactName: 'electron',
   force: process.env.force_no_cache === 'true',
   cacheRoot: process.env.electron_config_cache,
-  checksums: process.env.electron_use_remote_checksums ? undefined : require('./checksums.json'),
+  checksums: process.env.electron_use_remote_checksums ?? process.env.npm_config_electron_use_remote_checksums ? undefined : require('./checksums.json'),
   platform,
   arch
 }).then(extractFile).catch(err => {