  We give a low temperature formula for the stationary occupations in Markovian
systems away from detailed balance. Two applications are discussed, one to
determine the direction of the ratchet current and one on population inversion.
Both can take advantage of low temperature to improve the gain and typical
nonequilibrium features. The new formula brings to the foreground the
importance of kinetic aspects in terms of reactivities for deciding the levels
with highest occupation and thus gives a detailed quantitative meaning to
Landauer's blowtorch theorem at low temperature.
