[RE-wrenches] Off Grid Battery Charging

[Larry Brown]

Wrenches

I have a client that we did an off grid system for about 4 years ago
The system is performing well
The client would like to keep charged her batteries in the winter with her stationary bicycle operating a small generator 
Right now she uses a grid connection that was available and she turns on a breaker if needed to charge the batteries in the winter through the inverter
When the batteries are fully charged she turns the breaker back off
No need for any back up other times of year
That is the only use of the grid

Her request was to be off grid 
This set up eliminated the need for her to have a generator for winter low light conditions
So far all is working as designed
But there is talk of adding a gas generator so that if the grid is down, there is a back up available
 
The system has 16- AGM Concorde SunXtener Batteries configured in 2 strings of 8 batteries per string
They are PVX 3050T 6 volt batteries operating at 48VDC
They are charged from the PV Array by 2- Schneider Conext MPPT 80 600 Charge Controllers
The system has a Schneider Conext XW+ 5548 Single Inverter

Any thoughts or ideas of what equipment can be matched with a stationary bicycle that might give a trickle charge to the battery bank
Anyone ever played with setting this up?
She wants to try this out and see what is possible
Get some winter exercise and perhaps keep the batteries as close to full without using the grid or a back up gas generator

All suggestions welcome

Thanks
Larry

Larry Brown
Sun Mountain