  We have considered the nonlinear response of mesoscopic systems of
non-interacting electrons to the time-dependent external field. In this
consideration the inelastic processes have been neglected and the electron
thermalization occurs due to the electron exchange with the reservoirs. We have
demonstrated that the diagrammatic technique based on the method of analytical
continuation or on the Keldysh formalism is capable to describe the heating
automatically. The corresponding diagrams contain a novel element, {\it the
loose diffuson}. We have shown the equivalence of such a diagrammatic technique
to the solution to the kinetic equation for the electron energy distribution
function. We have identified two classes of problems with different behavior
under ac pumping. In one class of problems (persistent current fluctuations,
Kubo conductance) the observable depends on the electron energy distribution
renormalized by heating. In another class of problems (Landauer conductance)
the observable is insensitive to heating and depends on the temperature of
electron reservoirs. As examples of such problems we have considered in detail
the persistent current fluctuations under ac pumping and two types of
conductance measurements (Landauer conductance and Kubo conductance) that
behave differently under ac pumping.
