diff --git a/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.C b/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.C
index c51793f7..5ceadf80 100644
--- a/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.C
+++ b/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.C
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ NonLinSIM::NonLinSIM (SIMbase* sim)
   convTol   = 1.0e-6;
   divgLim   = 1.0;
   eta       = 0.0;
+  iteNorm = ENERGY;
 }
 
 
@@ -263,18 +264,22 @@ NonLinSIM::ConvStatus NonLinSIM::checkConvergence (SolvePrm& param)
   static double prevNorm  = 0.0;
   static int    nIncrease = 0;
 
-  double norm, enorm, resNorm, linsolNorm;
+  double norm=1.f, enorm, resNorm, linsolNorm;
   model->iterationNorms(linsol,residual,enorm,resNorm,linsolNorm);
+  if (iteNorm == ENERGY)
+    norm = enorm;
+  else if (iteNorm == L2)
+    norm = resNorm;
 
   if (param.iter == 0)
   {
-    if (enorm > param.refNorm)
-      param.refNorm = enorm;
+    if (norm > param.refNorm)
+      param.refNorm = norm;
     norm = prevNorm = 1.0;
     nIncrease = 0;
   }
   else
-    norm = fabs(enorm)/param.refNorm;
+    norm = fabs(norm)/param.refNorm;
 
   if (msgLevel > 0 && myPid == 0 && !solution.empty())
   {
diff --git a/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.h b/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.h
index 20f408d2..d077a6f7 100644
--- a/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.h
+++ b/src/SIM/NonLinSIM.h
@@ -75,6 +75,17 @@ public:
   //! \param[in] mode Solution mode to use for this step
   bool solveStep(SolvePrm& param, SIM::SolutionMode mode = SIM::STATIC);
 
+  //! \brief Enum describing the norm used for convergence tests in the
+  //!        Newton-Raphson iterations
+  enum ERRORNORM {
+    L2,
+    ENERGY
+  };
+
+  //! \brief Set the current norm in used in iteration error estimates
+  //! param[in] norm The wanted error norm
+  void setErrorNorm(ERRORNORM norm) { iteNorm = norm; }
+
   //! \brief Computes and prints some solution norm quantities.
   //! \param[in] time Parameters for nonlinear/time-dependent simulations.
   //! \param[in] compName Solution name to be used in the norm output
@@ -130,6 +141,7 @@ private:
   double eta;       //!< Line search tolerance
   int    maxit;     //!< Maximum number of iterations in a time/load step
   int    nupdat;    //!< Number of iterations with updated tangent
+  ERRORNORM iteNorm;//!< The norm used to measure the residual
 
   // Post-processing attributes
   int    nBlock; //!< Running VTF result block counter