Can I charge deep cycle lead acid / car battery with a bike generator?
Yes, a permanent magnet DC motor used as a pedal power bicycle generator can charge lead acid deep cycle / car batteries through a charge controller as shown in the diagram below. One of the cheaper solutions you can try and use is the Xantrex C40 charge controller. It costs about $150.00 (Click HERE for order information). It can handle 40 Amps. The Xantrex C40 owner’s manual is very explicit on how to setup your battery system. See page 47 of this manual. A wind turbine is shown in the diagram schematic on this page which is equivalent to a bicycle generator. The C40 is also used as a LVD which is a “low voltage drop out”. This is very important to a battery backup power system that uses lead acid batteries. The reason why is that you could be able to make your batteries last one to two years longer if you keep them from fully discharging. The LVD cuts the power to your inverter when it determines that the batteries are 50 to 70% depleted. You decide how low you want the batteries to
