Preheating and maintaining interpass temperatures can take considerable shop or field time, with added costs for both labor and fuel gases or electrical energy. Steel fabricators and erectors typically rely on prequalified WPSs using AWS D1.1 Table 5.8 – Prequalified Minimum Preheat and Interpass Temperature, as cited in Clause 5.7. Annex B, Guidelines on Alternative Methods for Determining Preheat, a normative annex, provides two methods to determine preheat and interpass temperature requirements based on the steel’s composition and thickness, the filler metal’s diffusible hydrogen, and joint restraint. AWS Standard D14.8M:2009, (ISO/TR 17844:2004 IDT) Standard Methods for the Avoidance of Cold Cracks provides four methods to determine the required preheat. Two methods (CE and CET) are based on European standards, one (CE N ) is based on a Japanese Standard, and one (P cm ) is based on Annex B. All have been used successfully for decades. With today’s cleaner and lower carbon steels, combined with the use of H4 and H8 low-hydrogen filler metals, time and cost savings, as well as environmental benefits, can be easily achieved using these alternative methods for determining preheat requirements.