Reply to ‘‘Comment on ‘Anomalous peak in the thermopower of ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$${\mathrm{O}}_{7\mathrm{-}\mathrm{\delta }}$ single crystals: A possible fluctuation effect’ ’’

Howson et al. reported measurements of the thermopower using an ac optical heating technique. In this reply we show how the signal measured in this experiment is proportional to only the thermopower of the ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_7$ sample with respect to the Pb reference leads. The argument of Logvenov et al. that the signal has a contribution from the derivative of the thermopower, is shown to be incorrect.