diff --git a/steering/settings.py b/steering/settings.py
index 1eaa4e6b14c1adfbd4e9836faa6c16326fbf8183..ad2ef047f1a1ea45cf0482147e114e5398841af1 100644
--- a/steering/settings.py
+++ b/steering/settings.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Django settings for pv project.
 
-import os.path
+import os
+
 import environ
 from corsheaders.defaults import default_headers
 
@@ -34,23 +35,33 @@ ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list('ALLOWED_HOSTS', default=['127.0.0.1', 'localhost'])
 # Whitelist IPs that access the API
 CORS_ORIGIN_WHITELIST = env.list('CORS_ORIGIN_WHITELIST', default=(
     'http://localhost:8080',
-    'http://127.0.0.1:8080'
+    'http://localhost:8040'
 ))
 CORS_ALLOW_CREDENTIALS = True
 CORS_ALLOW_HEADERS = list(default_headers) + [
     'content-disposition',
 ]
 
-DATABASES = {
-    'default': {
-        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
-        'NAME': env.str('POSTGRES_DB', default='steering'),
-        'USER': env.str('POSTGRES_USER', default='steering'),
-        'PASSWORD': env.str('POSTGRES_PASSWORD'),
-        'HOST': env.str('POSTGRES_HOST', default='steering-postgres'),
-        'PORT': env.str('POSTGRES_PORT', default='5432'),
-    },
-}
+# if we are in a virtual environment, we use SQLite and enable debug
+if os.environ.get('VIRTUAL_ENV'):
+    DEBUG = True
+    DATABASES = {
+        'default': {
+            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
+            'NAME': os.path.join(PROJECT_DIR, "db.sqlite3")
+        }
+    }
+else:
+    DATABASES = {
+        'default': {
+            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
+            'NAME': env.str('POSTGRES_DB', default='steering'),
+            'USER': env.str('POSTGRES_USER', default='steering'),
+            'PASSWORD': env.str('POSTGRES_PASSWORD'),
+            'HOST': env.str('POSTGRES_HOST', default='steering-postgres'),
+            'PORT': env.str('POSTGRES_PORT', default='5432'),
+        },
+    }
 
 CACHE_BACKEND = 'locmem://'