  We explore two- and three-state Markov models driven out of thermal
equilibrium by non-potential forces to demonstrate basic properties of the
steady heat capacity based on the concept of quasistatic excess heat. It is
shown that large enough driving forces can make the steady heat capacity
negative. For both the low- and high-temperature regimes we propose an
approximative thermodynamic scheme in terms of "dynamically renormalized"
effective energy levels.
